


An Unfinished Business Saga

by Aliasprick



Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: F/M, Fluff and Angst, M/M, Phone Calls & Telephones, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Some Crack, Why phone is important, Working adults
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-04-05
Updated: 2016-12-11
Packaged: 2018-05-31 09:39:40
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 15
Words: 48,701
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6465331
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aliasprick/pseuds/Aliasprick
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Fate works in a funny way. People were strung to the universe in the most unpredictable mechanisms. Sometimes, a small misfortune can stem to become big and the root cause could be something simple that can be solved easily. And fate played the role to put them together but perhaps, there is always a reason why it has to happen the way it is.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. PART 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hi all. I think I should update the work here to make it easier for everyone to read. This mesh of events will certainly make you question the bad decisions, really. 
> 
> Thank you for reading. Hope you guys like it.

Day, if went unnoticed would pass in a blink of an eye. Day to night and back to day. Together with it, the good moments dissipated like steam to air. What was left was a heart that was already broken to pieces. What was left was a person to pick up the pieces. Nothing much to be done there.

The moment of euphoria never lasted long enough for him to enjoy or felt like he was loved. Ever since he was in high school where he kept trying to create that perfect high school student’s dream, he lost count on how many relationships and rejections he had faced. 

This was the life Furihata Kouki led. Beginning and the end seemed to keep repeating themselves in a vicious cycle. 

His hands trembled, clutching the crumpled letter that wrote another ending of his relationship. Kouki had written off his fate thinking that the girl would be the one when he first dated her. The chemistry between them was undeniably strong. Kouki had wished that they were going to last. 

At least until marriage or if he was lucky enough until he was a crippled old man.

He could hear his own heart breaking. 

He was about to propose. She seemed ready to accept. That or it had been an illusion. How would he explain the letter talking about her leaving him otherwise? He felt devastated and perhaps a little betrayed. 

As always, the factor Z of girls leaving him was that he was too plain. He didn’t gouge romance intensely enough like every girls’ dreams. He was supposed to burn them like hell-fire. 

What the hell. 

Kouki just wanted stability. A house where he can play family with a wife.

Normal. He just wanted normal. This mindset was the reason why his relationship never worked out no matter how much he wanted it to be.

All girls seemed to look for that hell-fire. 

Do they really think men were the son of Satan?

“Erghhhh!!!” he let out a frustrated groan between his already clenched teeth. To dampen further on his already damaged romance, the rain poured to drench him from head to toe. Not even a drizzle was given as a warning, just a downright pour the moment the first drop touched his hair. 

He turned the letter into a crumpled ball, tossing it straight into the trash mindlessly. If he had not been overwhelmed by sadness and the rain, he would’ve been fazed by his timely aim.

He would’ve shouted ‘score’.

If he hadn’t been upset that is. 

“I’m going home”, Kouki mumbled as he took a sluggish step forward to move on. 

*

Hellfire. Akashi’s hair and eyes were of that hue. The number of eyes turned to see that hellfire were endless. No matter how far they were, the moment Akashi strutted into the human mass, all eyes could only see him. 

Akashi didn’t seek for permanent affection and upon his arrival in the bar, he immersed in the sea of human to bring a girl or girls home. 

To fuck. What else would he do with a girl he barely knew?

He bought the girls drinks, swooned them with sweet words and caged them in his chamber. As far as he was concern, relationship with no string attached was convenient. 

Once in a while was the excuse he threw whenever people started asking. 

Especially Tetsuya. Eventhough the teal haired boy was busy coveting over his boyfriend Kagami, he somehow found time to poke his nose in everybody’s business. 

Well, partly maybe because the Miracles seemed to love reporting back to the Seirin’s former shadow. 

The next day after disbanding his own harem, he once again found himself attending the lecture of one Kuroko Tetsuya on his phone.

“It is not healthy to be in that kind of relationship, Akashi-kun”. 

Akashi nodded his head absently. Kuroko had caught wind about his destressing activity again. 

“I was drunk, Tetsuya”, Akashi admitted. His spontaneous decision was perhaps because he was under the alcohol influence.

“Are you implying that the girls took advantage of your weakness?”

“Do not make me sound so pathetic”.

“Then you must have agreed while being able to make the decision to reject their offer”. 

Damn, Kuroko could be smart sometimes. 

“Don’t you have that dinner with Kagami? I would hate to be the cause of your lateness”. 

“I am on my way as we speak. Do not avoid the topic”. 

“I am not avoiding the topic, Tetsuya. I just find it ridiculous that you are trying to put me in a stable relationship. With my hectic schedule and reputation, I don’t think stability is feasible”. 

“Akashi-kun has never experienced love yet. He has no right to judge whether it is feasible or not when obviously, he is not trying”. 

The criticism did plague his mind for the next couple of days. One thing for sure, Akashi hated to be challenged. 

A new resolution sparked in his eyes after a few days of pondering. 

There was only one way to keep Kuroko off his case.

He was going to prove to Kuroko that stability was just not his thing. 

*

Kouki had this long sigh under the moonlight. Fukuda suggested that they went to another goukon after his breakup. Hopefully, a new love would bloom from there but goukon’s success rate was extremely low and thus, he once again found himself walking home alone.

He missed the last train and late buses stopped their service a while ago. He had no other option but to make his way home on foot. The street punks roamed the night alleys but he managed to avoid major trouble. 

Even the Yankees thought he deserved a comforting pat when they saw his face and let him go. 

Kouki was crossing the street when a driver drove too close to him. He tried to avoid the hit and fell down the sewer instead. Luckily it wasn’t a big sewer, just a shallow one. 

However, that didn’t warrant him from not fainting.

Kouki saw black. 

When he came to, he thought that he was staring at the devil himself with red hell-fire hair. 

He squawked and fell on the floor from the bed. 

“Enough of falling. You’re going to hurt yourself more than necessary”, said the man… who sounded extremely familiar to him. 

He gave a once over again.

He regretted that he even did.

He was in hell if he was looking at Akashi Seijuurou. 

The problem was that Akashi Seijuurou was staring back at him. 

“A-Akashi Seijurou!!” he squeaked. His poor heart felt like it was going to stop.

Akashi took a while to recognize the person before him. He browsed through the memory directory… and after a long search, he found the name he was looking for. 

“Are you Furihata Kouki by any chance?” 

“Um”, Kouki was considering lying about his identity. 

“I see. You are Furihata. It has been a while”. 

“Hahaha”, Furihata chuckled nervously, rubbing the back of his head tensely. 

He really should be going right now. 

All he had to do was stand up and leave after thanking Akashi for his trouble.

Yet for some reason, he was glued to the floor. 

“You seem to be alright”, Akashi stated. 

“Yeah, I am. I should be going home now. It’s late”.

Akashi stared at him some more as if there was nothing else to look at. The red eyes made Furihata self-conscious of his appearance. Akashi, even with just his white dress shirt and dark grey work trousers looked elegant with just minimum layers of clothing. Meanwhile, Furihata was only wearing a pair of jeans and a decent red shirt that probably didn’t improve his appearance by a huge margin. 

Heck, Akashi could probably use the same wardrobe as his and still looked elegant to boot. 

Well, the red head was the satanic son all girls dream of. 

“Like what you see?” Akashi asked after some time. 

“Uh…” Furihata looked away when he felt his cheeks heating up. Somehow he understood what kind of lady killer Akashi was.

The one that could kowtow the female population. 

Tch. 

“A-Anyway”, Furihata stuttered, “I-it doesn’t bother me too much. I-I’ll just take my leave now”.

“It’s four in the morning. You have two hours before the first train”, said Akashi. 

“I-I’ll just wait at the station”. 

“It’s dangerous to be outside at this ungodly hour”. 

“Uh… I-I’m a man. It shouldn’t be a problem”. 

“You might have concussion from the fall earlier”.

“I-I think I’d be fine?” 

BAM! Furihata almost fell onto his bum again from shock. The red head glared at him murderously, causing Furihata to take a step back defensively. He was trembling so hard at the red head sudden outrage that he had hiccup just from the shock. 

He thought he had gotten over his fear of Akashi after years of uncrossed path and yet here he was trying his darndest to muffle hiccup that was getting stronger.

“Do not make me repeat myself, Furihata Kouki. I despise such action”, Akashi said with an eerie smile that sent chills down his spine. 

“I’m sorry!” Furihata quivered and climbed back into bed. Akashi was satisfied with his action because a few minutes later, he joined Furihata on the bed without a comment. 

Furihata made a plan to leave after Akashi fell asleep. He turned to face the other side of the bed and kept listening for a sign that Akashi was asleep. Like a snore. Or a sleep talking habit. 

Except there wasn’t even a breathing sound coming from the red head, making it difficult for him to tell whether Akashi was sleeping or not. 

In his nervous wait, Furihata let a yawn or two slipped. He was tempted to turn around just to see if Akashi was asleep. It was eating him away when he didn’t know what the redhead was doing behind him. Maybe he should count to three and made a smooth turn with his eyes closed. Then, he could maybe peek an eye just to see the redhead and sneaked out if the other was fast asleep.

He could do this. He could do this. One, two, thre..

Twap! Furihata’s eyes widened as Akashi’s leg moved on its own and landed on Furihata’s side. It was soft but he could clearly hear Akashi’s even breathing. Furihata was glad that Akashi was asleep but he wasn’t glad about the leg trapping him. 

It was just one leg. If he peeled Akashi’s leg away carefully, he would be able to escape the redhead and they would forget they had even met. 

He carefully slipped his hand beneath the leg and tried to fork it off carefully. When Akashi stirred, he waited for a few seconds and continued on when there wasn’t a telltale sign the redhead was going to wake up. 

Furihata was near success when Akashi suddenly turned over and ended up on top of the brunet. ‘What kind of sleeping habit do you have???’ Furihata mentally screamed in his head. He was only a snap of the finger away from running out of the hotel room but now all hopes were lost with Akashi crushing him. 

‘Heavyyyy!!!’ Furihata whined in his head and they were too close. 

Akashi was officially sleeping like a koala hugging a tree. In this case, Furihata was the tree. 

It didn’t take long before the brunet passed out from embarrassment. 

Such was Furihata’s devil luck that day.

*

Both of them ended up in a car ride to Akashi’s office at three in the evening. The redhead was drumming his fingers impatiently at the number of cars queueing towards his exit.   
The jam-packed road also emphasized his negativity to which Furihata responded by swallowing a thick amount of saliva fretfully. 

Furihata didn’t know why he ended up in Akashi’s car… In his sleepy daze, he had been dragged by the redhead to his car. There was an explanation along the line of checking out time and late to some sort of meeting so Akashi would drop him off at the nearest station after work. 

Going a step back, Akashi had been the first one to wake up but he only stirred back to life when his phone buzzed on the nightstand for the sixth time. Furihata’s phone was dead and gone the night before so his alarm never went off. The rest of the history was a blurry mess to the brunet. They hadn’t even bath and Furihata noted that today was a working day. Silently, he agonized about the shift he had to replace when he got to work tomorrow. 

“Fuck”, Akashi cursed. He was tempted to honk at every car in front of him. 

“Um, where is your office, Akashi-san? There might be another way we can use”, Furihata suggested meekly. 

“Just ahead of this exit”, Akashi replied without even sparing a glance.

“Oh”, was all the brunet could manage. 

They stayed in the traffic for another fifteen minutes until Akashi pulled over his office’s building. Akashi parked in front of the entrance and immediately left for his meeting. Furihata scratched his head and was at a loss of what to do. It seemed that his existence was forgotten the moment they stepped outside of the car. 

“I guess I’ll get a taxi or something”, he mumbled. There was a taxi stand just across the road. Furihata quietly walked towards it and caught a ride to the nearest train station. 

*

Kuroko was smooching with his boyfriend when his phone rang. Kagami’s unfiltered curses oozed off the teal haired male’s speakers loud and clear, leaving a baffled redhead in the process. 

“When did you find the time to record that?” stuttered the said boyfriend. 

Kuroko answered with a mere shrug and picked up the call. 

“Hello, Tetsuya”, Akashi greeted.

“Akashi-kun, you have a bad timing”, grunted the other. 

“Am I disturbing something?”

“You are but since the mood is gone now, you may talk”. 

“I want Furihata Kouki’s number”. 

“… What do you want his number for?” 

“I have an unfinished business with him”.

“If Akashi-kun wants to harm Furihata-kun, I can’t disclose the information”.

“I just need to return a favor”. 

The excuse stunk of lies. 

“Are you going to harm him if I disclose his number?”

“Not in my intention, Tetsuya”.

That didn’t sound like a lie to Kuroko. 

“Okay. I’ll text you his contact”.

“You have my gratitude”. 

Two minutes later, the contact information he needed arrived in his mailbox. Akashi tapped and read the information. There was even a home address in the contact information. 

The redhead smirked and ignited his engine. The brunet had the nerve to leave before he could even bring him to the clinic just to make sure nothing was broken. 

Forget about calling. Akashi would appear on Furihata’s doorstep.


	2. PART 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own the characters. XD

The basic rule of being poor with only a few dollars tucked in the wallet was to always choose the discounted items on the shelf. There was also the principle of value buy that every poor man needed to know. If the money could buy two months worth of stock, one should immediately invest in such item so that they were saved for two months. Furihata was not an exception to this principle of life because he did not have a mountain of cash that probably only 1% of the world’s population had. 

He was wondering if he should go for Ajax or Trojan dish washing liquids. Both were competitively cheaper and were good products. Just that, he had been using Trojan’s apple scented formula for three months in a row. 

It seemed Trojan and Ajax both had their own lemon scented product. There was only one way to resolve this. 

Furihata looked around him to make sure nobody was looking before uncapping the Trojan bottle and began to sniff it. 

It wasn’t that bad. In fact, it smelled like a new formula he never used before. 

He sniffed the Ajax next. 

Ajax’s lemon scent was better and thus, he placed the winning bottle among his few other things in the shopping basket. 

Moving on to the cereal section, he read the discount tags along the way to see if there was anything he would be particularly interested in. 

Once again, he found himself staring at the sight of a familiar red head who was staring at things curiously. 

They hadn’t even departed for more than a few hours. 

Akashi’s eyes met his own. 

The red head wore a knowing smirk. 

Furihata lost all sensible judgement because the moment the red head moved in his direction, the brunet turned around and fled the scene. 

He ran out of the shop without paying, triggering the security alarm the moment he crossed the automatic door. 

“What’s Akashi doing here?” 

He panicked while holding tight a shopping basket full of items in his hand. 

Shouting directed at him could be heard from a distance but Furihata didn’t join the basketball team for nothing. Riko had basically drilled stamina into their bodies that the pursuit felt one sided as he began to lose his chasers. 

Furihata only stopped when he arrived at his four tatami mat room apartment building, huffing and puffing while leaning against the gate. The chasers were long gone and Akashi was probably gone with them too. 

“Mou, I just want to do some shopping! How did this end up with me turning into a thief?” 

For a moment, he wondered if he should go back to the supermarket and pay for the items. He should explain the situation somehow and clear up the misunderstanding… but then he paled when realization dawned on him. Akashi hadn’t done anything that could harm him. 

How could he justify his own instinctual action against morality? 

Telling the supermarket managers that there was a lion in the store and thus resulting in his escape would only end up with him labeled as delusional. 

That would be a situation he wouldn’t want to be stuck in.

Then what should he do now that his face would be on wanted posters all over Japan? 

“Mou!!!!” 

“Kouki”, a hand grabbing his shoulder from behind made him jump on his feet. The brunet turned around and was sweating profusely. 

“A-Akashi-san”, he chuckled dryly. Akashi was clearly amused, maybe from the way he tried to avoid the red head. It was too obvious that the brunet was sure not even an excuse in the world could justify his action. 

“You are very quick on your feet”.

“Ahaha, I think I should go back and pay for the items”.

“I’ve taken care of it. You can just pay me back later”. 

“O-Oh, thanks. H-How much should I give back to you?” Furihata felt for his wallet in his back pocket.

“A cup of tea should be fine”. 

“I-I’d feel indebted….” 

“Tea”. A frown slowly found its way onto Akashi’s face. 

“H-Hai”, Furihata squeaked and brought the man to his humble home. 

“My house i-is small and uncomfortable”, the brunet mumbled nervously as he tried to unlock the door.

“It’s fine”, said Akashi. Furihata let him in. Akashi took the view in. How could anyone live in such a cramp space? There was a small table in the middle of the room. Thin floor sofas stacked on top of each other underneath the table and Furihata pulled out one to let Akashi sat cozily.

“I’m s-sorry if it’s not comfortable enough for you”.

“This would do”, the red head sat cross legged on the sofa. 

Furihata awed at the fact that Akashi resembled Buddha giving his lecture in the poise he was sitting in. 

Like the big Buddha statue in Kamakura…. Well, not that he remembered exactly how the Buddha sat. 

The TV sometimes showed the tourist spots. The image just got stuck in his head. 

Not bothering with the thought process that was lost to him, he filled the tap water in the kettle and put on the stove. Luckily he retrieved some cookies from the shelves earlier. 

There was only a plastic plate on the dish rack and he used that to serve the cookies. 

He silently prayed that Akashi wouldn’t mind the minor details. 

The kettle whistled and Furihata threw in the tea leaves and put out the fire. 

When it was set, he poured the green tea (yes, he was making green tea) into the only superman mug he owned. 

And that was the end of green tea making tutorial. 

“U-Um, here are some cookies”, that you paid, he left that out, “and tea”. 

Furihata prayed harder when Akashi judged his superman mug. The red head accepted the mug and took a sip. After only a sip, Furihata watched the other stared at the liquid as if he had just drank poison. Akashi scoffed (why?) and set the mug back on the table. 

The brunet hoped that Akashi was traumatized enough that he wouldn’t visit Furihata ever in his life. 

“About your well-being, I find it necessary that I take you for a checkup”, the red head brought up the reason he was there.

“A-Akashi-san, you don’t have to trouble yourself! I’m perfectly fine!” 

“Please accept my offer. After all, it was my mistake that you were hit”. 

“I-I’m not sure if I want to”, Furihata mumbled incoherently. 

The mismatched eyes burned with an unexplained resolve. Incoherent or not, Akashi had heard him.

“I’m sorry but this is for both of our own good”, Akashi suddenly stood up swiftly and his hand knocked the back of his head performing a strong chop. Furihata squawked and fainted when the blow hit him.

Akashi held the mug and brought it with him to his car while dragging Furihata by his collar. 

Hopefully, the chop wasn’t strong enough to break Furihata’s neck.

*

Doctor Midorima was extremely close to blowing up in his friend’s face. His hands pried for any signs of injury around the brunet’s head and his examination had confirmed that the fall hadn’t caused Furihata any serious damage. 

However, the chop was leaving a forming bruise. There would be purple discoloration on the skin in two days. 

The red head should’ve find a better method to convince said brunet to the clinic than shutting him off with a strong force. Was it really necessary to drag the brunet against his   
will? Was this even legal?

Shouldn’t this be considered as a form of kidnapping?

“He wants to scold you so effing bad. I can tell that much”, said Takao from the doctor’s table.

He smirked jestingly at Akashi who was glaring daggers while forming various murder plans to eliminate the black haired individual in front of him. As of this hour, Takao was actually the doctor in charge but after the incident with Kuroko’s examination a few months prior, he was banned from laying a finger on Akashi’s friends.

Yes, something did happen and no, it wasn’t that bad but Akashi was being unnecessarily over protective. That would remain a secret as he vowed not to speak of it again. 

“I was just carrying out my duty as a respectable citizen”. 

Surely that would cease Midorima’s idea of grounding Akashi to a pulp.

Come to think of it, that would be a laughable attempt.

Nobody even dared to prick his skin with a needle. 

Not even Midorima would dare to mar his flawless skin.

“Wow, what a way to amend your mistake”, Takao laughed. 

Akashi growled. 

He never liked Takao. Why did Midorima even consider dating this bastard?

“You are Midorima’s only mistake”, Akashi grunted.

“Well, I’m a mistake he’ll gladly make again and again and again and besides, I could give him the kind of happiness than you can’t”.

Akashi cringed at the sudden mental images he was getting from Takao’s words.

“It’s a mistake talking to you”, Akashi ended the conversation before he became more irritated. Takao was like this itchiness that wouldn’t go away no matter how much you scratched at it. The best way to get rid of him was to ignore his presence. Instead he turned his attention on the green haired doctor 

“What’s his status, Shintarou?” 

“Other than the fact that you’d hit him pretty hard, nothing else is broken”. 

“… I see. Will the bruise trouble him?”

“He will find it difficult to move his head for a few days. He needs an MC. Two days should be enough time to let him recover”. 

“I see”.

“On a lighter note, why did you find it necessary to do that to him?”

“Do what, Shintarou?”

“Oh, for crying out loud, why do you need to chop him in the neck? You’re a trained martial artist! You should’ve known better than using the technique to injure a person who poses harmless intention!” 

“He refused to see a doctor. It was the only way I could persuade him to come with me. A proper diagnosis is needed so that there would be no false claims in the future”. 

“Pft. Now you’re making it worse for him”, Takao giggled. 

“Shut up, Takao”. “Shut up, Kazunari”. 

“Hahahaha”, Takao laughed harder and added, “Both of you need to work on your people skill”. 

“You need to work on your maturity”, Akashi retorted back. 

“Oh, I assure you. I am very, very mature”, replied the little demon with a wink. 

“Stop flirting with Akashi, Takao”, Midorima pushed his glasses up. 

“Oho, are you jealous, Midorima-san?” Takao asked playfully.

“Do not make a baseless assumption, Takao”. 

Midorima’s red ears betrayed his words as usual. Akashi suddenly felt bad for intruding their sweet lovey-lovey time with each other. 

“So, what’s your plan, o mighty emperor?” asked Takao. 

“Any more ridiculous words from you, I’d have your head”, Akashi jerked a finger menacingly. 

“Uuuuu, scary”, Takao made a mock scared face before bursting out loud with laughter.

Akashi swore one day he would make Takao regretted the fact that he even laughed at Akashi.

But not at Midorima’s expense. 

He’d wait until Midorima realized what a bad choice he had made for choosing the monkey. 

Then, he would eliminate Takao.

Once and for all. Muahahahaha.

However, Takao did have a point. What now that he had caused damage on Furihata? As a responsible mature adult who was standing at the pinnacle of his wealth and achievements, having his own self labeled as selfish and heartless would be the last thing he wanted. 

It was okay if an enemy called him that because that was the kind of result he aimed to yield from his efforts of traumatizing his competitors. 

He didn’t want to be labeled as that by his prospective customer. 

What was it again? Ah, yes, customer was always right. Good advertisement would always bring forth good return.

Therefore, before Akashi’s status, Furihata’s well-being came first. Who knows he could roll out money further via his good relation with the brunet.

He should hospitalize the brunet in his private hospital. 

Hm… But that wouldn’t make him seem selfless.

Ah, he had an idea. 

“I’d nurse Kouki back to health”.

“Wow, already on a first name basis”, Takao whistled.

Midorima’s glasses cracked into million pieces.


	3. PART 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own the characters

Furihata was drowning in the chaotic waves of noise. Blurry images panned one after another and they were all of encounters and separations. Words that were spoken interlaced until all he heard was snips of sentences that were hanging. 

“Girlfriend”. “Clubs”. “Good at”. “Not enough”. “Type”. “Herbivores”. “Restraint”. “Cross”.

Words spoken by different voices meshed to string a nonsensical sentence. 

Was it even a sentence? No, they were excerpts from his past.

Each excerpt reminded who they were. 

The desire they yearned for. 

The tears they had shed.

The enforced restraints they had to chain him with.

And who he was. 

The abandonment. 

The broken trust.

The silent tragedy. 

The hurt. 

They emerged as broken pieces of memories and tried to link in their misfits. 

He wasn’t saved from the clutch of the universe.

He wasn’t saved from the trial of society’s expectation.

They were what he couldn’t crawl out from. Those were well-established and ruled over his existence.

“Ge-Get away!” he heaved angrily, trying to diminish them all but Furihata knew all too well that this moment was beyond his control. 

Nonsensical mesh of memories streamed down his forlorn sleep freely. 

He stopped breathing in hope that they would stop. 

It was at that moment when he was pulled out from the dream. 

A strong, firm jolt woke him up.

“-Ki!Furihata Kouki!”

Furihata stared at the familiar face, suddenly remembering how to breathe. He choked and shivered, holding the hand tightly to anchor himself. Beads of sweat wet his skin, his hair was drenched in them. 

“Feeling better?” 

“Huh?” 

“Have you calmed down?” 

“Oh”, he said, having forgotten why he was waking up in agitation. 

He was nodding his head when he felt a strong pain on his neck. 

“Ah, please be mindful of your bruise. I apologize for hitting you earlier”. 

“That’s alright”. 

He focused on the familiar face. Akashi looked back with a calm demeanor. 

“A-Akashi-san”, the stuttering kicked in the moment he finally realized to whom he had been talking to. 

“Ah, that’s nice to hear”, the red head replied. 

It took a moment but soon he noticed that he wasn’t in his usual futon. The feathery bed shifted under his weight slightly when he made the movement to change his sitting position to get a better view of the red head. Akashi drew aside the curtain folds to let the sunlight in. 

Adequate warmth restored the room temperature to an agreeable degree. The air-conditioner was blowing strongly for Furihata and thus he welcomed any form of warmth. 

“W-Where am I?” the brunet asked. 

“This is my place”, Akashi answered casually. 

“Eh? Why am I here?” 

“… We can talk about it over tea. If you’d allow me to inquire about something else. As a host, I’m concern about your well-being”. 

Furihata blinked. He was sure he wasn’t worth of Akashi’s time. 

Perhaps Akashi was just trying to be a good host.

“Well, I’m okay, I guess. Though my painful neck is still quite a confusing thing to me”.

Akashi faked a cough the moment Furihata was done with his reply.

“Ah, indeed but that wasn’t what I’m most concerned about. Just now, you were having an attack in your sleep. You seemed to be troubled by something”.

“It was a nightmare. Everybody has one. There’s nothing to be worried about”, the brunet smiled. 

“Does this nightmare frequent your sleeps?”

“Eh? Ah, no. This is the first time I’m having this nightmare. It doesn’t bother me that much so don’t worry about it”. 

Akashi raised a questioning eyebrow.

“Just now, you were about to suffocate, Kouki. It doesn’t look to me like a mere nightmare”.

“R-Really? Luckily you are here, huh?” 

“But I guess if you think it won’t happen again, it should be fine”. 

“Positive thinking, right?”

Akashi raised his eyebrow again.

Well, that was a lame response. Even he had to admit. 

“The maid would be sending up breakfast here. Please use this chance to recuperate. I’d be at work so if you need me, call me”, said the red head, formally bowing his head. 

“Eh, I don’t have your number”.

“I’ve miscalled your phone. It should be in your phone log”. 

Only when Akashi left the room did Furihata react to the statement.

“What?????” 

*

People swayed to the clock rhythm as the day went by. Individuals of different objectives walked the corporate building with tasks in hand, ready to begin or ready to complete. 

There wasn’t a time to stop until the office hour came to an end. 

Rapid typing meshed with the voices of the people as they continued to circulate their ideas and beliefs to whomever intended. Neighboring individuals hardly paid attention to each other, eyes locked on the monitor where tabs after tabs of software lined on the taskbar. Morning was the busiest time of the day as they were all trying to catch up to the incoming meetings. 

These were all the common occurrences Akashi faced every day. He only managed to drop his businessman facade when he was within his office room. 

“Coffee, mild”, Akashi ordered his secretary. He loosened up his tie and sunk into the swiveling chair, half turning it until he was facing the window. Tall towers erecting from the ground entered his view.

The sky was within his reach. 

The cars were the size of an ant from where he was sitting. 

Akashi felt like he was on top of his game. 

It was like the universe can belong to him.

Well, he was a CEO of the top 3 largest multinational companies in the world.

It wasn’t too outstretched to believe in having the universe in his hand. 

The secretary came back with a steaming cup of coffee and he sipped languidly as he pictured his magnificent future. 

“Akashi-sama”, addressed the secretary, “Kuroko-san is on the line”.

“I’ll be answering the call, thank you”, the red head said dismissively. 

Of course, words traveled fast. He should expect no less from Kuroko Tetsuya. 

He picked up the receiver and waited for Kuroko to start. 

“Hello, Akashi-kun”, Kuroko said from the other end. 

“Hello, Tetsuya”, the red head managed an eye roll. 

“I’ve heard from a reliable source about the previous appointment you had with him”.

Of course, like he had mentioned before, nothing bypassed the teal haired man.

“I see. You must have heard about the… episode then”, he tried to sugarcoat to make it sound trivial. 

Kuroko didn’t exactly feel the same way as he did. 

“I believe Akashi-kun promised that he would not harm Furihata-kun”. 

“It was necessary”, he was already losing the battle of speech. He could feel it. 

If Kuroko wanted to hand him his ass, then he would get his ass handed.

There would be no other way escaping his yet another lecture. 

“Akashi-kun, intentional harm is a criminal act. You could be prosecuted for it”.

Okay, he had no way of deflecting that point. In legal standpoint, he would be in court had it not been for Furihata’s understanding nature.

“I’m aware of that”, agreeing was the only best retort he could find. 

“You have to act on it if you are aware of it but I’m sure you know that too”.

“Of course”, he agreed again because what was he supposed to say here? 

“But you didn’t”.

Akashi rolled his eyes again. There were back to the original point but this time, it was perfectly staged in a way that Akashi would confess. 

“I only hurt him to bring him to Shintarou’s office”.

“Even if it’s for a right reason doesn’t immediately make it right”.

“Kouki was being stubborn about it”.

“You could’ve tried a different approach”.

“But I didn’t. I was acting on impulse”. 

“Akashi-kun, have you apologized properly to Furihata-kun?” asked Kuroko. 

“Something alike to that”, ‘mother’, he chewed his bottom lips, repressing the word from slipping. 

“Properly have a chat with him. I heard that you are taking care of Furihata-kun. How is he doing there?”

“Recovering”. 

“Tell him to get well soon. Please don’t do anything rash to Furihata-kun”. 

“I’ll try not to”.

The phone call ended on a solemn note. Kuroko, to Akashi, was like a mother figure in some sense. Even though he didn’t have the chance to spend more time with his own   
mother, he could understand how having a mother would feel like. 

The teal haired man took the role just fine. 

Kuroko always tried to correct his skewed judgement. Things that the red head thought was acceptable given the conditions around the situation, Kuroko would show him a   
different view of humanity he needed to consider. 

It was hard to say whether he liked the pampering and correcting or not. 

Sometimes he would think that Kuroko interfered too much but he knew Kuroko only worry because he cared. 

They had a friendship bond that shackled them together and the bond chained himself to other people like Midorima, Kise, Aomine and Murasakibara. People like Kagami, Takao,   
Reo, Hayama, Nebuya, Chihiro and Himuro entered the endless chain and now, he had his secretary and a few other trusted colleagues entering it too. 

They, he perceived, did what they did with him as the subject of concern. 

However, regarding Furihata, there was nothing anyone of them should be worrying about.

There was a part of him trusting the entirety of the mousy man. 

The brunet would not just accuse him for something so meaningless.

He doubted any of his mistakes would be an issue to the brunet. 

Akashi wanted to make up to Furihata. Really, he had been in the wrong for both incidents. 

“Akashi-sama”, the secretary entered the office again to ask, “You are invited to a gathering by Duke Royce of the London Royalty tonight. The invitation is extended for two people. Do you want me to call one of the girls in your contact to attend the gathering with you?” 

“No, instead of calling girls, please prepare appropriate attire for Furihata Kouki. He will be attending the gathering with me”. 

“Noted, sir. I’ll have everything ready for the two of you”.

“Thank you for your hard work”, Akashi nodded appreciatively. 

In the back of his mind, he imagined Furihata tripping in his shoes when they were at the gathering later. 

He helped himself to a small smile. 

*

Kuroko put down the phone next to the breakfast tray. Sitting opposite him were Kise, Himuro and Takao. It had become a part of their weekly activity to include this kind of meeting between the four of them. This was like a group support where they talked about their boyfriends’ problems and tried to think of solutions together to alleviate the pressure in their relationships. 

It was then and there where Kuroko learned from Takao about the Furihata and Akashi incident. 

Kuroko, worried about the states of his two friends, had called them when he learned about the incident. The first phone call he made was to the brunet where Furihata tried his best to explain everything without injuring Kuroko’s friendship with Akashi and the second call he made was to Akashi who admitted his fault and was already fixing the situation by himself. 

The sentence, ‘it’ll work out’, embarked on a sailing ship. Well, not entirely sailing yet. More like they were at the stage of smashing the bottle and popping wines when a ship first set sail.

Though Kagami would probably panicked after he learned about what happened. There would be accusing finger but over the years, Kagami knew Akashi bore no ill will. 

There was also the fact that his boyfriend had developed a strong sense of protective brother role for the brunet. 

Just like how Kuroko and Akashi’s relationship was. 

Kuroko would understand if Kagami would go on ranting about Akashi and what he did to Furihata.

But he’d be there to comfort his boyfriend. 

“So, how are they?” asked Takao. As a doctor who was present at the checkup, the role to take note of a patient’s health progress resurfaced as if it was already a part of his nature. 

“Furihata-kun and Akashi-kun are in good condition socially and physically”.

“Well, not that I’m worried about them or anything”.

“Haha, you do worry. Admit it, Takaocchi”.

“Well, he is a doctor”, Himuro teased.   
“But really, Kurokocchi. Are those two an item?” 

Kuroko, Takao and Himuro gawked at the blond.

Though he said they would work out, he never associated the idea with lover’s intimacy.

More like friendship. 

After all, with the frequency of Akashi’s slandering and Furihata’s wife hunting, Kuroko doubted that the two of them would even consider each other as potential lovers.

“The probability of that is 0.0000001 percent”, Kuroko said. He had to, however, give a benefit of a doubt. 

“Have you seen them? They are two worlds apart!” Takao countered. 

“A working relationship is only healthy when they can communicate with each other”, said Himuro.

“But still, don’t you see? It’s like fate decided to merge their paths”. 

“Urghh… Please stop with those stuffs, Kise-kun. Do you understand the pain of listening to astrology and destiny stuffs everyday?” 

“Oh, your bae is Midorimacchi”. 

“Shut up”. 

“Right, we’re not here to argue. In fact, we’re here to discuss about something”, Himuro reminded the original purpose of the meeting. 

“Oh, yeah, Kurokocchi” “Oh, yeah, Kuroko-kun”, both Takao and Kise said in unison. 

Kuroko slurped on his milkshake. He had gathered them all here to help him with something.

And the only people he could turn to were Takao, Kise and Himuro.

“About Kagami-kun…”


	4. PART 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own the characters

“About Kagami-kun…”

Kuroko had to pause where he was at and he hadn’t even started. There were so much to be told and they were all waiting for him to continue. There was only one time Kuroko would put down his milkshake and that was when he was being completely serious.

“You know how long Kagami-kun and I have been together”, he made a statement to remind them that he and Kagami had been going out since they were in their final year of high school.

Like a school romance, under the falling Sakura petals, he confessed and Kagami had returned his feeling. He was happy back then but lately, Kuroko was shrouded with doubt. 

The more he observed Kagami’s actions, the more he began to think that the red head probably was not feeling the same.

It was true that they had kissed and touched each other’s skin but small actions caught his attention and made him think about their relationship differently.

“Kuroko, you know you can tell us anything”, Himuro gave his hand a comforting squeeze. One that let him know he’d be there for Kuroko.

Kuroko acknowledged the gesture with a small smile. 

“I think Kagami doesn’t feel the same as I do”, he said, looking down at the table, “the way things are right now, I feel like I’m in his way”. 

“What do you mean, Kurokocchi?” asked Kise, taken aback by Kuroko’s admission.

“We have not even once go further than just kissing. Even when we’re touching, Kagami-kun will shy away”. 

“Kurokocchi, sex is not the only way to determine your partner’s feelings”.

“I understand that but that’s not the only thing bothering me”, Kuroko covered his face with his palm. 

It was frustrating to think about what went through his mind every night he lied on the same bed with Kagami. That Kagami could’ve been free from his shackle and made a family of his own. From time to time, he would pry the messages in Kagami’s inbox just to see the kind of interaction the red head was having with the opposite sex. Most of the mails came from the girls in his workplace, asking him to attend goukon. Obviously, the red head was popular with the female population judging by the number of dating asks he was receiving.

Once, Kagami had even asked Kuroko if he could attend a goukon organized by a colleague to even out the number of men and women. He came back with a girl to stay the night in their home. Apparently, she had missed the last train but when they appeared together at his home (and Kagami), Kuroko couldn’t help but think that Kagami should be with a beautiful woman. 

He should become a father to beautiful children and a good husband to a beautiful wife.

It gave him a revelation.

He was in the way of Kagami’s bright future. 

Kuroko didn’t deserve him. 

“Did something happen?” asked Takao carefully.

“Nothing too big. Just, I feel like I am in the way”, said Kuroko.

“What do you mean by that, Kuroko?” asked Himuro. 

“Kagami-kun deserves better”, Kuroko couldn’t bear to look at them in the eyes so he casted his glance at the street.

“Do you want to talk about it?” asked Himuro.

“Yes, I do feel like… Like I need to tell someone. If I bottle it up, I might hurt Kagami-kun. I don’t want that to happen”, he admitted.

“We’ll listen”, said Takao. Himuro agreed with the black haired male while Kise looked like he had something to say but held his words. 

“When we first started going out, I was naively happy, thinking that we would always be together. The first year was smooth but entering the second year, when we started college, there were times we would have conversations about guys and girls dating. At first, I didn’t think much about it but when he just kept going about his close relatives marrying and having kids, I had my doubts.

His face would lit up when he speaks about this matter. I don’t want to come off as jealous so I pressed my feelings down. Even though I still had my doubt, we kept going until the end of college years. Close to our graduation, Kagami became a volunteer in a nearby orphanage. I got curious once and followed him to the orphanage. 

What I saw was his happy face when he played with the kids. That’s when I realize I won’t be able to give him what he truly wants. He started working soon after. He is in the marketing and I’m not surprised if he has a lot of female colleagues. I soon began to pry his messages just to see what he is talking about with them. I can see how he treats them sweetly and his rough manners are obviously charming to the girls. 

I am no match against a woman. I just don’t know what to do now”, Kuroko let it all spilled. 

Himuro, Takao and Kise exchanged knowing looks.

“Kuroko-san”, Himuro said calmly, “have you considered talking to Kagami about this?” 

“I… I haven’t but even then, I think he will just lay it off”, said Kuroko. 

“Kagami is an understanding man. You have to talk to him about your insecurity”, replied Himuro. 

“That is what I don’t want from him. He is an understanding man and because of that, he will treat me like something that can be easily broken”, said Kuroko.

“You want his honest opinion”, Takao pointed out.

Kuroko silently nodded. 

“He is too nice”, Kuroko voiced out, “and that’s precisely why I don’t want to be the wall between him and his happiness”. 

He wanted Kagami to be happy even if it would cause him grievance. 

“Kurokocchi, I have a suggestion but you wouldn’t like it. I’ve faced the same predicament before with Aominecchi because at that time, both of us were confused”, Kise finally spoke up after listening to Kuroko’s story.

Kuroko’s worry was common between same sex partners. 

Unproductive relationship became a concern between partners and often led to misunderstandings and fights when not communicated properly. 

He had had a fight about it two years ago with Aomine when the aho had doubt that they could work out but Kise believed in only one thing.

Without teamwork and clear communication, nothing could work out.

“Kise-kun had a fall out before?” asked Kuroko.

“Yeah, for about a year”, said Kise.

“What did you guys do to resolve this?” asked Himuro curiously. Although his relationship with Murasakibara was not a blanket of rose, Himuro never doubted their relationship. 

The understanding between the two ran skin deep. 

He slightly wondered if he and Murasakibara would ever encounter this dilemma. 

Kise scrunched his nose at the memory. It had been a painful one year for both of them and he was not too keen to use it to solve Kuroko’s problem.

But sometimes, all you need was a little break to realize that you were meant for each other. 

“We broke up for a year to give each other some space. It was horrible but Aominecchi was the one who came back. I will always be in love with him so I have no issue of going out with him again but I was miserable when he left”.

“I didn’t know that had happened”, Takao said with a mix of somewhat fascination and piety.

“I’m not that weak. I can handle a little pain”, Kise smirked. 

“It makes you stronger”, Himuro added his own wise word. 

“But hey, I don’t mean you have to take that route but sometimes, separation makes hearts grew fonder. It doesn’t mean it will solve your problem though”, Kise thoughtfully added. 

“You still need to discuss this with Kagami, Kuroko”, Takao insisted.

The gentle assuring smiles they showed Kuroko lifted his spirit.

“I will try”, the teal haired male said, his voice lacked the tone of distress. 

The abandoned milkshake was back in his hand. 

When he got back, he would make sure to sit down and talk about him and Kagami. 

*

Captivating decorations were hung and displayed in every nook and cranny of the mansion where Duke Royce resided. Rare china and busts of renowned characters stood on marbled stands that were polished to shine under the light of a magnificent chandelier. Dazzling ladies in beautiful gowns trotted the floor with grace while the men gathered in numerous numbers of circles, flocking people with similar interest together for discussions or debates. 

It was a treat to the eye to watch a piece of something out from the movie happening in front of him but the only comfort the meek brunet found in the middle of the ballroom was the luxurious food. He was stiff as a stick when someone passed him or even made the effort to talk to him. A lot of time, Furihata found himself wracking his brain for a smart answer that could please all the other guests there. 

His pause though bored the other guests and they left him to his own accord. 

The only thing that came to mind was a ridiculous thought of:

What the flying fuck was Akashi thinking bringing him here?

He was obviously the only one out of place there. 

The other attendees wore reputations on their sleeves like it was a normal thing. It was something Furihata didn’t have.

While it excite him to finally meet important figures in their skins, he was scared shitless to be standing on the same floor with them. 

He scanned the crowd for any sign of Akashi. The red head specifically told him to stay put while he greeted the “old men”. On the contrary, not all of them were old. Some of the guests here were as young as a high schooler. Perhaps sons and daughters to the influential figures. 

A waiter on duty kindly offered him to take a cocktail from the tray he was holding. Furihata gladly took one and sipped the liquid. The red cherry bobbed up and down in the   
clear liquid as he swirled the glass in a circular motion. There was still no sign of Akashi no matter how hard he looked and his eyes were already growing tired. 

He felt a light throbbing on his still delicate neck. Akashi’s butler had accommodatingly sprayed the sports cramp spray to lessen the pain before forcing him into fancy suit. It had been a struggle to tame his unkempt appearance since normally, he just had to spend his normal life either at work, at home or with a girlfriend (The last activity was scratched out of list). 

He never would’ve dreamt of going to a fancy ball like this. 

Nope. Commoners only went to goukon. 

“Ladies and gentleman, the main event, the dance will start in about five minutes”, announced the master of ceremony delightfully, “We would be picking a random pair for the starter of the first dance by lot”.

The emcee thrust his hand into the drawing box and pulled out a rolled piece of paper. 

He unrolled it and announced the lucky pair that had been picked from the box. 

“The lucky duo for the dance opening is Akashi Seijuuro and his companion, Furihata Kouki. Congratulations to the both of them!”

That’s not something he wanted to be congratulated about!

Furihata paled and tried to hide himself behind the unsuspecting crowd. 

His plan to disappear quietly was ruined when Akashi, whom he had spent time searching for, made his appearance like he had been there all along. 

“Can I have this dance with you?” 

Furihata laughed nervously. He could feel envious eyes burning on the back of his head. 

Could he even decline this arrangement? 

Ah, but he could not dance to save his life. That would make a good excuse. 

“I’m sorry… I have clumsy feet when it comes to dancing”. 

Akashi put on the sweetest smile. 

“I will teach you the how to shortly. For now, just grab my hand”. 

“But I’m a guy”, Furihata hissed in a whisper.

“It’s very common to have two men dancing in a function such as this”.

“That’s very corr-” before he could even end what he was saying, Akashi grabbed his hand and he was lurched forward. 

Akashi never had to improvise in his life. They looked like they were about to perform tango. Although he had had some lesson, Furihata was obviously untaught of any kind of dance step.

“Let me lead”, Akashi mumbled. 

“But…”

Akashi’s glare stopped him from arguing. 

The musician played the tango song and Furihata just let himself be dragged around. 

He had no clue what he was doing.

Well, at least the handsome man knew what he was doing.

Yes, shove it. Akashi was handsome up close. 

He didn’t let himself got distracted and paid attention on the red head’s steps.

The pace was good and easy but when the music turned a notch up, Furihata yelped when he was lowered to the ground in 60 degrees vertical. Akashi had his arm supporting his waist but it still scared him. 

Nope, Furihata was not light by definition. 

How the hell did Akashi manage to support him?

Nervousness only became intrigue when the audience clapped.

A few of the audiences joined the dance floor. Akashi was right. Male and male pairs were pretty common. 

“You’re not that bad”, Akashi said the instant they were dancing the normal pace again.

“No, actually, Akashi-san is a good lead”.

“Well, it takes two and two to tango. If you hadn’t cooperated, that would’ve been a disaster”. 

“Yeah, I guess”.

A while later, the music changed to a slow dance music. Furihata was bugged eye when the red head pressed himself closer. 

Talk about awkward. 

He could see the audience chattering among themselves. Some girls were even pointing at them.

Furihata recognized this.

He was pretty sure he was being labeled with something uncouth over there.

Hopefully they won’t hurt him or anything.

“Kouki, you’re tensed”, Akashi pointed out. 

“Uhhh…” 

“Am I causing you discomfort?”

Furihata wanted to say yes but Akashi was pouting, almost. 

He had Akashi pouting.

That was when he realized he couldn’t say no. 

“This… This is alright”, he gulped. 

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah”.

When the dance was over, the brunet was back to his wall flower post. He had some jell-o with condensed milk. He was busy entertaining himself when a group of young men walked up to him. 

“You must be Akashi Seijuurou’s new pet”, said the blond short one.

Pet? 

“Uhh… I’m his acquaintance”.

“Well, you don’t have to hide it but this has to be the first time he brought a male with him”, said the dark brown lock male standing next to the blond one. 

“I thought he was straight”, the blue haired one talked to his friends.

“I’m surprised that he is bisexual”, said the blond one. 

They gave him a once over.

“But he looks pretty common”, said the dark brown lock one. 

“Maybe he has an appeal in bed”, snorted the blue haired one. 

Furihata caught on. Crap, they thought he had an intimate relationship with Akashi.

“By all means, no!” the brunet puffed. 

The three men looked at him incredulously.

“I get it. He’s cute”, said the blond. 

“Yeah, that’s probably the reason”, said the blue haired one. 

“Oh, shut up!” the brunet moaned in irritation. The trio were about to continue when Akashi interrupted them. 

“Is there anything wrong here?”

Furihata wanted to say that he was being judged here but he shook his head. 

The three men bowed politely and scampered away. 

He stuffed his face with the Jell-o.

The mood to enjoy the food was gone. Now he just wanted to lighten his stress with food. 

Akashi held his chortle. Furihata resembled a chipmunk when he tried his best to fill in food in his mouth. His cheek blew up. He was obviously displeased with whatever the three men said but the brunet kept his anger in check. Though in a stress eating way. 

Akashi decided to spare him.

“I’d like to go to the cinema after this. Do you want to join me?” 

“What are you watching?”

“Deadpool”.

Furihata’s face brightened up.

“Yeah, sure. I haven’t watch it yet. Glad that you ask”.

“Well, that’s good to know”.

And the two left the depressing event for a simpler and fulfilling date. 

And yes, it was a date.


	5. PART 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own the characters

The credit rolled up signifying the end of the movie but the audience were still seated in their respective chairs, sharing laughter at the rainbow shooting out the unicorn’s horns and the like. The movie hadn’t been too bad, in Akashi’s opinion but the violence message was strong in it. He had no problem with the cuts and slashes and blood splattering everywhere scenes but Furihata was closing his eyes whenever humorous scene transitioned into gore.

The brunet was hardly laughing, only sometimes when the joke became a little too funny. Then his smile would bloom like a daisy in the spring.

Furihata’s eyes were brimming with tears at the scene when Wade put a wall between himself and Vanessa. It was hard not to notice the subtle eye-rubbing movement just to shed the tears away but Akashi saw it in the corner of his eyes. He found it adorable. If it had been on anyone else (Kagami or Aomine) he would’ve call them a wimp.

Deadpool was a nice movie but Furihata was the only thing that kept replaying in his head. As if inside the cinema wasn’t enough, the entire time they sat at the cafe to let the movie feels died down, the red head caught himself stealing glances.

They had a simple conversation over coffee and hot chocolate. Coffee for the driver and hot chocolate for the passenger. Half of the conversation was focused on Akashi, nothing too personal and the other half was about Furihata. Daily routines, movie preferences, music preferences… nothing too particularly intrusive was shared between them.

Around ten, they left the mall to Akashi’s residence. On the way, they passed the road where the temple festival was held and spectated the firework display from the car’s visor.

The road was packed with the festivals goers but they managed to get to the end of the road but not without Akashi’s impatient finger drumming on the steering wheel.

They reached the mansion at one in the morning and Furihata said his goodnight. The pain had long dissipated and the mattress cozily accepted his wearied body.

Night drifted to morning too soon.

They were at breakfast when the brunet said, “Thank you for the hospitality, Akashi-san, but I think, I should not overstay my welcome”.

The red head stared momentarily, trying to process the words.

Furihata put on a simple smile full of gratitude.

“Ah, yes, you still have your responsibility to be taken care of”, said Akashi.

“I think I’ve been away long enough. You have been a nice host”.

The rest of the breakfast was left at the compliment offered by the brunet.  
Akashi dropped Furihata in front of his apartment before going to work. They shook hands and exchanged a few departing comments outside. It had been brief but it had been enjoyable, they agreed.

There were no promises of meeting again.

Furihata watched the car left the compound silently and climbed his way up to the second floor. Damp smell of the tatami mat caused him to sneeze. He had left without shutting the window and the rain must have gotten into the room. He wondered if this part of the state had been raining since where he was yesterday was all sunshine and warm.

He was drying the wet blotches on the floor where the rain got onto the tatami when a sound knocking obliterated the peace.

Furihata answered the door and was met with the sight of the landlady.

“Furihata-kun, glad to see you happy. You know why I’m here right?” she asked.

“Ah, the rental. Wait, wait, I have it this month. Let me go get it”.

The brunet searched the envelope where he kept the money but found it to be empty. Furihata remembered that he had the money. He can’t seem to recall where he had kept the rental amount.

He looked for it underneath the cushions, the table, behind the wardrobe, inside the wardrobe… but his search was fruitless.

Guiltily, he returned to the front door without the rent money he had promised to pay.

“I’m sorry”.

“That makes it two months now”, the old lady clicked her tongue, obviously displeased.

“Give me time to search for the envelope. I swear I had them”, begged the brunet.

“I’ve given you too many chances. No more”.

“Please, landlady”.

The landlady shook her head. Furihata lowered his head dejectedly. He went back in and packed his possessions which were not much. An hour later, he was on the street, lost and wondering where he should be staying the night.

He sat on a bench in the park nearby, his suitcase placed next to his leg.

Furihata unzipped the small pocket and pulled out a frame. He stared at the picture that had once been a blissful family. He touched the face of his brother, father and mother whom he could never meet again.

His nose wrinkled and his eyes were glossed over. His whimper were the only other sound accompanying the breeze.

Things had not been this bad before. Furihata remembered the day he was in Seirin. Those days had been the better days of his life. He was unmotivated at first but that changed when he joined the basketball team. Even if he still was unmotivated, he still could return home and spent the time with his family.

His high school graduation was where it all ended in a bedlam. The basketball team, all of them were having an after party and thus, that night, he had left the house to celebrate their graduation. That night had been fun, their kouhais had gathered enough fund to buy the seniors dinner. They had hearty laughter all night long, fun games brought excitement in the corner of the family restaurant.

The fun however ended when his steps halted.

In front of him, vigorous fire was licking clean the building that was once his home. Firemen and neighbors were rushing to put off the fire. The whirring sound of the hose being pulled was dim against the beastly sound of the burning red light. Various emotions flickered in front of him on many faces but Furihata couldn’t find his family among the crowd.

He asked the crying neighbor where his mother, father and brother were.

They pointed towards the house on fire, too overwhelmed to even speak.

The only thing that came to mind was to get his family out of there but Furihata was held back by the strong hands of the adults when they saw him attempting to run into the fire.

He was shouting curses as he fought on to save his family.

They had to put him to sleep. Memory of that night ended in darkness.

The next morning, Furihata was confused as to why he was awakened in a hospital bed. He was confused as to why his relatives were giving him condolences.

But when reality hit him hard, the only person who had been there for him was Kagami.

Kagami lent him a supporting shoulder, patting his head as he cried himself to sleep.

“I can’t possibly turn to Kagami every time something – hic- like this happened”, he mumbled softly as if he was talking to someone.

The park had no one. The one whom had heard him was himself.

“I missed you all”, he said desperately, cradling the frame close to his chest.

Tears dripped down, head hung low. Furihata let it all out.

When he finally calmed down, dawn had already unleashed its colour. Painted across the sky was the orange and purple tint. Furihata bucked up and wrapped his fingers around the bag’s handle. His eyes were swollen but he ignored the discomfort.

There was a 24/7 bath house nearby. He should crash the night there and figured out what to do next.

*

A week had passed since Akashi’s brief encounter with Furihata. He hadn’t heard from the brunet ever since and the red head quietly sat in his study while wondering what was he doing reminiscing over that few days of his life.

Blaming it on the stressful life he was having while slaving himself in his director’s chair, Akashi decided to release his pent up frustration. The only thing that came to mind was his usual routine of sexing up a girl. He grabbed his phone and scrolled down the name of his favourite escort.

Except, he was shocked to find that he wasn’t in the mood slightest.

Even the escort girl was wide eyed at the usually healthy little Seijuurou that refused to straighten up no matter how much she tried to give it a good blow.

“Eh~ If Akashi is not in the mood, why are you asking me to do this for you?” whined the girl.

He didn’t like the way she was criticizing him and absentmindedly noted to remove her from his contact list.

“Leave”, he ordered. She was dressed instantly and did as she was told.

Thinking that there might be something wrong with his head, he called out to the professional pervert that he knew so well since middle school and that was how he found himself sitting in front of one Aomine Daiki who had his arms crossed. Sitting next to him was Kise who occupied himself with the chips on Aomine’s plate.

“What’s he doing here?” asked Akashi pointedly. He had expected Daiki to come alone but Kise tagging along was beyond his anticipation.

“We were out together when you called me to meet you here”, said Aomine.

“Yeah, we were at the mall until you called”, Kise chipped in.

“Then, you both must know that whatever discussed here stays here”, Akashi gave them a warning look.

“No Kurokocchi?”

“Especially not to Tetsuya, understood?” Akashi gave them another warning glare promising death.

“Understood”, both Aomine and Kise answered in unison.

“So… what’s the problem that you needed me to advise you so badly?” asked Aomine, trudging carefully on the subject matter.

“I can’t get it up”, Akashi answered blatantly like it was a topic about the weather.

Kise almost, almost let out a snicker but knew that it was best for him not to let it show. He stuffed a few more chips in the hope to distract himself from thinking about it.

Aomine on the other hand released a full blown mockery lark. The red head was itching to kill him but because he needed Daiki’s help, he let the sun kissed man had his little fun.

“Are you done?” asked Akashi when Aomine stopped sniggering.

“Yeah but I can’t be-he he – believe that your little man is not living up to your expectation”.

“Are you mocking me?” asked Akashi dangerously.

“No, of course not. Um, I’m very, very concerned”, nodded Aomine in a serious tone.

“When does it start?” asked Kise, trying to help his boyfriend out. He thanked god for his ability to act. Otherwise they both would’ve been sent to the depth of hell.

“Last night”, admitted the red head easily.

“Maybe you should give yourself a break before another one night stand. It’s probably a onetime thing”, said Aomine.

The blunette advice made sense to him. He waited for another two weeks before calling another escort to bed her, only to be ridiculed by a woman again when he couldn’t get it alive and standing which led to another meeting with Aomine and Kise who seemed to appear without his invitation. The waitress was a blushing mess by the time she got their orders. That was the kind of reaction they were getting everytime the miracles gathered together, even if there were so few of them.

“You’re still getting the same result?” asked Aomine.

“Yes and I’ve given it some resting time as you have suggested”.

“Woah, this is weird, ain’t it, Kise?”

“Yeah, what could possibly be troubling Akashicchi?”

“You must have something weighing on your mind”, suggested Aomine.

“Perhaps”, the red head retorted.

“What was the last thing you thought about during that night?” asked Aomine.

“Which night, Daiki? You have to be more specific”

“The first night you can’t get it up”.

Akashi paused and tried to recall back what he had been thinking despite knowing the answer deep down. The curious faces were studying him, waiting for him to share his story.

Aomine was clearly enjoying this advisory role of his judging by the way his eyes glinted in amusement.

“Before I answer your question, Daiki, I would like to make it clear that the same rule still applies”.

“What rule?” Aomine whispered to Kise.

“The no kurokocchi rule”, reminded Kise.

“Eh, oh that, sure. Whatever you said”, Aomine easily agreed.

“Since we all have come to an understanding, I’ll humor you with what’s in my head”, said Akashi.

Aomine and Kise let the red head took his sweet time to form whatever explanation he had to give. Akashi cleared his throat and answered simply with a name.

“Kouki”.

“Huh?” both Aomine and Kise were confused with the answer.

“I’ve been thinking about Furihata Kouki a lot lately”, said the red head.

“Furi-Furihata Kouki as in Tetsu’s ex-teammate?” Aomine gawked at the ex-captain.

“The same one”, admitted Akashi.

“Is this about guilt?” asked Kise. Aomine raised an eyebrow at his lover.

“Oi, Kise, you know something?”

“Yeah, Akashicchi accidentally hurt Furihatacchi a few weeks back”, explained Kise.

“You did what?” Aomine asked obnoxiously, attracting the eyes around him.

“I appreciate it if you keep it down”, Akashi warned the blunette.

“Man, if that’s the case, you should just apologize to him”, said Aomine, digging his ear with his left pinky.

“I have already done that”, replied the red head.

“Maybe you haven’t done a good job at it?” Aomine took a guess.

“I’ve been forgiven, Daiki. Hardly any bad feeling was left in between us”, said Akashi.

“Eh… then, what is it?”

“It’s the memory”.

Akashi looked back at that time they hung out together. He didn’t understand why but those times held merit in his eyes, like something that he was fond of. He couldn’t stop himself from letting Furihata’s words, voice and face flooding his mind.

But he hadn’t taken it into account that it could be the reason to his current failure.

Logically, something he cherished should not be the game stopper for his night time rendezvous.

“Did something bad happen?” asked Kise.

“Nothing particularly damaging. We had a rather enjoyable time”.

“Woah, this is the first time I heard you said the word enjoyable. So what did you guys do? Play basketball?”

“Attended a gathering and had a movie night. Nothing out of ordinary”, said Akashi.

“Um, why don’t you tell us what happened that night. Maybe we can find some clue from your story?” suggested Kise.

And so it began, Akashi’s lengthy and very detailed descriptive speech. From the time the accident occurred to the time they departed, he never missed a single detail of what had happened. Akashi looked out of the cafe’s window and saw his own reflection. There was an unknown expression plastered on his face but it wasn’t something of negative feelings.

The waitress came back with their orders by the time the red head punctuated his story with the last second of that encounter.

When he turned back to make eye-contact with the two idiots, he didn’t expect to see surprised expressions.

“What is it?” he asked snappily.

“Um, ahahaha, this is kinda hard to fix”, Aomine laughed nervously.

“Akashicchi, that was… that was sweet! I want things like that to happen to me too!” Kise squealed, patting his flushing cheeks to tone down the embarrassment.

“Whatever do you mean, Ryouta?” asked the red head. He seriously had no idea why they were reacting timidly.

“I think, this one, you have to ask yourself”, answered Aomine on behalf of Kise.

“I’ve asked myself often and I still don’t have the answer. Don’t waste my precious time, Daiki. If you know something, tell me”, deadpanned Akashi.

“We can’t answer it for you”, Kise shook his head. It was not their place to decide what anyone else’s emotion.

“It’s a matter of the heart”, Aomine added helpfully.

“A matter of the heart, eh?” Akashi repeated.

“Look. Just a suggestion but why don’t you try to find Tetsu’s ex-teammate and see if that helps you?” said Aomine.

“Who knows? You might find the answer in an unexpected place”, said Kise.

The two were being cryptic and not that Akashi hated such things but it would’ve resolved things faster if they had answered him clearly. However, Akashi knew it wasn’t easy to make these two tell him the direct solution. Especially when they were supporting each other.

“I’ll see what I can do”, the red head sighed.

“Hahaha, wait. Need to reply a message”, Kise took out his phone and began to open the Uke group chat tab. His fingers speedily typed the message while trying to hide his snicker.

Kise: Hey guys, let’s make a bet on whether Furihatacchi will go out with Akashicchi! Winner gets free dinner. I’ll call for a yes.

And just like a stream of messages bombarded the group chat.

Three no to his one and only yes. Seriously, they should be here to know Kise’s probability of winning was high.

Oh, how he couldn’t wait for the expensive dinner in the sky tower restaurant! He forced himself to put on an innocent face while his heart was grinning.

He was so going to win this.


	6. PART 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own the characters

Kagami checked the kitchen cabinets and wrote down the things he needed to buy or replace. His own mumbles blended in with the noise of his scribbling as his eyes darted to the items they were running low on. 

Kuroko had been in bed when he woke up in the morning. Not wanting to wake the tired teal head, Kagami made a soundless escape to start his day. Since it was Saturday morning, he took his time to prepare the cake batter for breakfast. 

After shoving the cake inside the oven, he had half a mind to plan the trip to the shopping mall. The other half was to just stay at home and spent some quality time with Kuroko. 

He was a little too caught up with work lately that seeing Kuroko on regular basis had become difficult. Business meetings became a regular daily routine and to be honest, it wasn’t even a job that he liked. He liked basketball but on a long term commitment, he wouldn’t make it his job. 

Judging from how they were really, really running low on stock, he would have to make the trip either today or tomorrow. He would like to have Sunday free of task and thus, today was the only day he could go grocery shopping.

He ran his hand on his scarlet strands and chewed the end of the pencil while going through the list one more time. 

“Good morning, Taiga”, had almost toppled him from where he was sitting.

He never thought that Kuroko still had it in him; to be able to scare him shitless with his soundless, phantom movement.

“You scared me!” he scolded the other.

“Looks like I still have it in me”.

“Geez, you’d think after being together for so long I will graduate from that shit you pull off”

“It’s not my fault you didn’t notice me”, the teal head pouted. 

“Yeah, yeah, whatever”, the red head smiled, disheveling the matted hair. Kuroko glared at him and huffed. He didn’t miss the amused smirk on Kagami’s face. 

“By the way, you should get ready”, said Kagami turning off the oven when it went ding. 

“Hm?”

“We’re going on a grocery date. Come on”, the taller male ruffled Kuroko’s hair like a nudge for the other to make his way to the shower. Kuroko jabbed Kagami’s once that he double over at the impact and left with light stomping to the bathroom. He made sure to show his small smirk to let the other know he wasn’t angry. 

“So you want to play it that way, huh?” Kagami’s eyes twitched. He was back on his feet again and chased after the teal haired male. He tackled unexpectedly, bringing both of them down onto the floor. Kuroko braced for the impact of the fall but it never came. Kagami had his arm wrapped protectively around Kuroko’s back with one hand rested behind his head. He squinted an eye to see and was met with Kagami’s crumpled cloth. 

Kagami was wearing black and it wasn’t uncommon for him to be dressed in black at all.

Except that he was wearing the same t-shirt when they had gone out on an official date for the first time. 

He remembered how they were having a good time the whole day despite having rain soaking them to the bone before they went home.

He remembered how under the rain, Kagami swore oath of loyalty to him. 

Despite being the one who confessed to the red head, Kuroko was the first one to doubt their relationship. 

Now of all the time in the world. 

Kuroko couldn’t tell when his vision started to become bleary. It was like the rainy night was back to remind him.

And yet, he still couldn’t allow himself to hold on to that one oath.

“O-Oi, Kuroko”, Kagami panicked when he felt his chest becoming wetter. The figure beneath him was trembling and soft sniffling made its sound known. 

“D-Did I hurt you anywhere? Did something break?” Kagami sat up, pulling Kuroko together with him. He frantically searched for any sign of broken bones or bleeding on the smaller male. 

Kuroko wasn’t physically hurt but he was still crying. The dumbfounded red head scratched his head, unsure of the cause of Kuroko’s breakdown. He breathed a sigh and wrapped his arms around Kuroko, rubbing Kuroko’s back to comfort him. 

Kagami ,being an awkward person he was, no matter how long he had been with Kuroko, graced his lover with an awkward gesture he would never ever showed to anyone else. 

“I-I love you”, Kuroko said, balling his fist on Kagami’s t-shirt. He had been putting this talk too long and now was the time to have it.

“I know”, Kagami nodded understandingly but at the same time, his heart felt heavy like Kuroko’s word was a premonition to something bad that was going to happen.

“I –hic - love you”, the teal eyes looked at him with tears dripping down on his cheeks. Behind the teary eyes lied determination Kagami couldn’t quite understand. 

Kuroko leaned in to peck on his lips.

“T-Tetsuya…”

“That’s why I-I want you to be happy”, Kuroko said, letting go of Kagami’s shirt, “And I am not the person who can bring you the true happiness you long. You, Kagami Taiga, deserve so much more than growing old with me”.

Kagami stared at Kuroko blankly.

“That’s why, I’m calling us off”, Kuroko stood. There was a hint of surprise and fear on Kagami’s face when Kuroko uttered those words when he looked at the other from above. 

Kuroko showed his back, letting go of the beautiful thing he had with Kagami.

He could feel losing them between his fingers when he took the first step away from the person he loved. 

Kagami finally collected his thoughts when he saw Kuroko moved away from him. With fear and surprise gone, his feeling was replaced with anger. 

In a swift movement, he caught Kuroko’s wrist and held it tightly. 

“You can’t do this to me”, the red head hissed angrily. 

“Let go of me”, Kuroko tugged his hand back.

“You can’t leave me confused, Tetsuya! You haven’t talked to me and yet you decide to leave me? Who give you the right to decide what’s best for me?” 

“LET ME GO!” bellowed the shorter male, tugging harsher that Kagami loosen his grasp. With another tug, Kuroko’s hand was free and he ran to the bedroom and locked the door behind him. 

“TETSUYA!!!” Kagami banged his fist with force against the wooden door. 

“DO YOU NOT UNDERSTAND? I’M DOING THIS TO MAKE YOU HAPPY!”

“NO, YOU CAN’T LEAVE ME WITHOUT A FUCKING GOOD REASON!”

“I’M GIVING YOU FREEDOM, TAIGA! GET THAT SHIT NAILED IN YOUR HEAD!” 

“I DON’T NEED FUCKING FREEDOM! OPEN THE FUCKING DOOR, TETSUYA!” 

“LEAVE ME ALONE! FUCKING LEAVE ME ALONE!”

“I WON’T STEP AN INCH AWAY FROM THIS DOOR!” 

Kuroko glared at the door. He had to make Kagami leave. He was a plague here that was stopping Kagami from getting what he really wanted. 

Why couldn’t Kagami understand? HE was giving Kagami a chance to break free. 

Away from this delusional illusion of happiness. 

“Idiot”, Kuroko bit his tongue as another streak of tears ran down his cheek. He would like this to be easy, where they had the conversation and let go of Kagami peacefully but he just had to become emotional over a piece of shirt. 

He knew only one way to make the red head disappear.

He knew only one way; to resort to lies.

“I CHEATED ON YOU, STUPID FOOL!” Kuroko shouted back. 

The banging was becoming lesser in its strength.

“I DON’T LOVE YOU! THAT WAS ALL LIES!”

“WHY WERE YOU CRYING THEN?”

“IT WAS AN ACT TO PUT YOU OFF! I LOVE ANOTHER PERSON! NOW FUCKING LEAVE!” 

Kagami didn’t retort back nor did he continue to bang on the door. When Kuroko heard the front door being shoved to a close, his heart thumped violently.

He opened the door with a part of him hoping that the sound he heard was not real.

He looked for Kagami’s shadow anywhere in the house but saw not even a glimpse of him. 

In the end, the one who hurt him was himself. His whole body became weaker and he collapsed on his knees, crying his heart out of what had become of them. 

Outside, Kagami took the umbrella from the stand next to the entrance welcome mat. The clouds were grey in the sky, not what he would see a few hours prior. 

And didn’t it reflect his own emotions right now?

“Perfect weather for a perfect scene”, the red head grumbled indignantly, letting his own feet take him to where he could be alone. 

*

People said that your eyes can be the window to your soul. Maybe they were right. Maybe you could see your soul when you see your eyes. The more Furihata stared at his own reflection in the water, the more he reflected his own past.

He threw a stone inside the lake to break the depressing notion. 

Furihata looked around and saw a few couples strolling the park. How very nice to have a date to go to. 

Well, he was once in their position. Until the girl left.

What luck! He sighed sentimentally. 

He took out his phone to check the time. It was a quarter past afternoon. 

“Now where is Haizaki-san?” he muttered softly. 

They were supposed to meet up at the park’s bridge so that he could bring Furihata back to his apartment. After two weeks of hitting and lounging in the bathhouse, his body was starting to ache. Out of kindness, this colleague of his offered him a place to stay. Haizaki now was different from when he was in high school. If he used to be a bastard back   
then, now he was too kind for his own good.

That man was too noble in his own right. 

“Furihata-san!” the familiar voice interrupted his pondering.

“You’re an hour late”. 

“Sorryyy the bus was late”, Haizaki apologized. 

“Nah, you offering a place to stay is already more than enough for me. All is forgiven”, the brunet smiled. 

“Ah, where’s your stuffs?” asked the silverette as he looked around for Furihata’s bag.

“Just one trolley bag”, the brunet stepped aside to show the other his belonging. 

“Well, let’s-” Haizaki didn’t even managed to finish his sentence when a man bumped against his shoulder and snatched Furihata’s phone out of his hand. The brunet looked at   
the hand where his phone was with wide eyes.

“H-Hai-Haizaki-san, I… He… My phone…”

“Tch”, the silverette clicked his tongue. “Stay here. I’ll go after him”. 

“H-Haizaki-san!” Furihata wasn’t able to stop the man. He watched Haizaki’s figure becoming smaller and smaller as he chased after the phone snatcher. 

A small crowd began to form around him. 

“What happened, young man”, a concern lady expressed her worry.

“Um… a thief snatched my phone”, explained the brunet.

Whispers about the thief became a topic of discussion among the crowd. 

“We should call a police”, suggested a man.

“No, it’s alright. My friend is already on it”. 

“Ah, that’s a relief to know”. 

Meanwhile, Haizaki was tailing close to the thief but the added distance between them was increasing. Whoever stole Furihata’s phone was quite a runner. Everytime he was within reach, the thief would increase his pace to slip away from Haizaki’s grasp. 

“STOP”, hollered the silverette. 

“STOOOOOOOPPPPP!” the silverette hollered again and added more energy into his running. He grabbed the man’s hoodie and they both rolled onto the granite surface. Furihata’s phone descended in a projectile curve in the air and landed on the road. 

The silverette watched in vain when a truck ran over the phone. 

There’s no saving it now. “Damn it”, said Haizaki between his gritted teeth. 

“Ouch. Ouch”, the man below him whined and made the effort to struggle to break free. 

When the thief turned around to look over his shoulder, he began to sweat. Haizaki angrily tear off the face mask and shades to reveal the thief’s identity. 

And when he did, they both froze.

“Haizaki?” “Nijimura-san?” 

Kouhai met sempai in the most awkward situation. Not the kind of reunion either of them would expect.

“What happened?” mumbled Haizaki anti-climatically after he was over with the shock of seeing his sempai back.

*

Furihata tensed at the atmosphere at the table. The two men next to and across of him were in silence but they were obviously having a mental conversation with each other… if that was even possible. The smaller male yelped when the waitress put down the bowls of their orders with a clank. 

“Here’s your food. Enjoy your orders”, she said tiredly and with a bored tone. 

She mouthed a ‘good luck’ to Furihata, probably mistaking the situation as an affair quarrel. 

Furihata wanted to say that she was getting the wrong idea but was cut short by Nijimura suddenly attempting to switch the bowl of tofu with the gyuudon bowl. 

Haizaki beat Nijimura to it by hitting the offending hand with a pair of chopsticks. 

“Ouch! That hurt, you son of a-”.

“Eat your bowl of tofu, thief”.

“Hey, I’m just trying to make a living”. 

“Try to make an honest one next time”. 

Nijimura grudgingly pulled the tofu bowl closer and began to pick at it. While they ate in silence, Furihata didn’t miss the occasional peeking of the black haired male. 

“S-So…. are you… are you someone that Haizaki-san know?” asked Furihata carefully. 

“Yes, and you are?” asked Nijimura with a quirk of an eyebrow.

“S-Someone that… that Haizaki –san knows too”, Furihata yelped. 

“He is my colleague, the owner of the phone that you stole which got run by the truck you saw earlier. Apologize. Now”, Haizaki angrily demanded. 

“Oh… so you own the phone… hah… I’m just trying to make a living. Sorry about that”, said Nijimura.

“It-It’s alright”, Furihata retorted shortly. He was too scared by the whole situation that he didn’t even feel angry. 

“So?” asked Haizaki to Nijimura.

“So what?” Nijimura asked back.

“Are you going to tell me how you, sempai that I respected my whole life, becomes a lowlife thief?” 

“It’s not really lowlife. Just dishonest”, Nijimura corrected.

“Well?” 

“Well, long story short, the economy gets tough and I have to work as a freelancer in order to survive in this cold, cruel world”, explained Nijimura.

“So the economy gets the better of you”. 

“Precisely”, Nijimura waved his chopsticks in front of Haizaki’s face. 

“I can understand that”, agreed Furihata. It can’t be helped. To survive, people would do anyth…

“Stop right there and you”, Haizaki pointed his finger at Furihata, “don’t be too accepting. Nijimura-san, there’s a lot of ways you can earn money. If you look hard enough, you   
can find a job. Why to the point of becoming a thief? Plus, you don’t look like you don’t have a job”. 

A smirk tugged on Nijimura’s face. “Eiiii, since when you become this smart, huh, kouhai?” 

“Nijimura-san”, warned Haizaki.

“I’m sorry. I can’t share the rest of the information with you but thanks… for chasing after me”. 

“That’s not the explanation I want to hear”.

“And Haizaki’s friend, here is the replacement money for your broken phone”, Nijimura swiped a few piece of paper money and placed it on Furihata’s table side.

“Wh-What?” Furihata just stared blankly at the cash money in front of him. 

Nijimura finished his tofu and got up. 

“Thanks for the meal. Adieu~” the black haired male waved and left the restaurant with a skip. 

Haizaki watched his sempai go, mumbling

“What did he mean by thank you?”

*  
Akashi thanked the old landlady and after bowing, he proceeded to board the Sedan car that was waiting for him in front of the old apartment. Propping his arm against the door, he glared at every lamp post in sight. Evident around his eyes were swollen dark circles of exhaustion. Work and life seems to try to cross path at the same time with him in the picture.

How merciless.

A few days back, while being in the dilemma about this matter of the heart subject, Akashi was visited by a group of government officers. They were accompanied by two policemen, buff tough dogs that had nothing to lose if anything were to happen. The business they had with him was to support a thematic project of donation to the poor people in order to raise the image of the government to the public.

They promised to exempt him from tax if he supported the project but Akashi knew sly foxes when he saw one. The red head just watched the fumbling mess of people talking about the advantage and benefit of the project. 

“I’ll think about it”, he had answered them. They were a little perplexed because unlike his father, Akashi was a tough nut to deal with but accepted his answer the way it was.

After the talk, the officers approached other companies. Fortunately, Akashi had shares with the other companies in Japan. He became aware that the offer wasn’t just extended to him exclusively. 

This resulted into him hiring a special force led by Nijimura-san to learn about the motive of the government. 

That had given him headache in hiding any form of investigation trace.

This ride however, was another story. He was currently in the search for one Furihata Kouki whom he wasn’t able to find. The landlady mentioned about how he had moved out from the apartment and she had no way of contacting him. 

It wasn’t that he hadn’t tried to make the call himself. Last night, after signing off the last document, Akashi had attempted to make a call. When it wasn’t successful, he had tried to send messages. 

That hadn’t worked out very well either and he tried contacting again, only to be graced with, the number you have dialed is currently not in service. 

“Where are you, Kouki?” he asked to no one in particular. 

If they were to meet again, he’ll be sure to give a lecture about the importance of having the phone with him all the time. 

That was just how much human race had depended on a piece of assembled metal and plastic.


	7. PART 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Feelings belong to oneself, an invincible matter that is there but not quite reachable to others unless linked. Sometimes, it can eat oneself within hours or even years. Via different perspectives comes different response and from it, will different result emerge?
> 
> Read on :)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi everyone. Thank you for the reviews. Very much appreciated. Some of you are probably wondering why 6 chapters at the same time? Well, these chapters had been posted previously on tumblr but decided to compile it here since it is difficult to keep track using posts. For new readers, it might be hard to dig up the old chapters using tumblr post. This is much efficient. 
> 
> Hope you enjoy the story so far and here is the continuation of the saga.

Down the road of a narrow street, a staircase was seen to be occupied by a queue of energetic young people. Inaudible booming of the music dispersed whenever the bouncer in charge closed the door after letting in customers who had their IDs cleared. Every person there, young man and woman, were dressed for the occasion in the way that showed a lot of skin. It made anyone wondered if there was anything else left covered and unseen apart from what had met the eyes that were gawking.

UTOPIA, the name of the bar in question had a stretched popularity within the youngsters’ community. DJs and dancers flocked the bar to increase in fame. Good music soared high when well received at UTOPIA.

While the likeliest motive to hit the bar was to have a good time, there were also cases where the customers just wanted to drown in sorrow or relieving their stress. They could be easily spotted at the bar counter and the signs were obvious.

Slumped shoulder, sour pus expression, hair that was all over the place were enough signs to erase potential fun but the most obvious sign was when they preferred to stare at the shelves behind the counter than the dancers on the stage.  Fulfilled all of these and you would have a miserable at best customer. Perhaps they were not actually staring at the counter shelf. It could be that the one to mend their broken hearts was the bartender himself.

The bartender of UTOPIA was none other than the black haired beauty with a side bang to cover one side of his beautiful eyes, Himuro Tatsuya. He had a reputation in the art of mixing cocktails and was one of the best in Japan. From a simple martini to high quality cosmopolitan, he found no difficulties in providing the order for his customers.

On daily basis, Himuro would send his most flattering smile to everyone who requested drinks from him but in the past five days, he was unable to generate the sincere smile at anyone. Not when his _brother_ was partaking the marching band of the brokenhearted customers.

“Vodka. Give me Devil’s spring”, requested the red head mournfully.

“That’s your third shot, Kagami”, Himuro pointed out equally solemn at the potent order. Kagami had been drinking shots after shots of strong alcohol on consecutive nights. That couldn’t be good for his kidney, thought Himuro worriedly.

“Just... give what I want”, Kagami banged his head on the counter in the attempt to split his head open.

“Okay, okay! Stop being a kid! I’ll get you Devil’s spring!”

Kagami stopped throwing his tantrum but still had his head lying on the countertop. He picked the small glass and brought the cold surface to touch his nose.

“Tetsu....” he spoke of the name that he longed so much till now.

“Your Vodka”, Himuro showed the small glass of vodka in front of Kagami but before the reaching hand could grab the glass from him, Himuro moved it out of Kagami’s reach.

“Wh... Tatsuya you sneak!” the red head hissed.

“I will give it to you”, said Himuro with a stern look, “but this will be your last shot for tonight and come up with an explanation as to why you decide to try alcohol poisoning”.

“I can’t promise you that”, retorted the red head stubbornly.

“Then I’m afraid you can’t have this”.

Himuro was startled when he saw a pleading look melted on the usually determined face. Kagami’s eyebrow knitted at the joints and his eyes held the helpless sparks, as if the glass Himuro was holding was his lifeline.

“Please, Tatsuya”.

No, it didn’t matter if the Vodka was Kagami’s lifeline. Himuro would not be the one to help him cross the bridge of death.

“You have to promise me, Kagami. I”, Himuro paused, studying his brother with pity, “I won’t let you lose yourself like this, Taiga”.

Himuro’s word must have struck something when Kagami straightened up and stared at the countertop.

“I’m sorry. I- I promised”, Kagami whispered hesitantly, “I’ve worried you”.

Himuro’s hard face softened. “Here. You need this for when you’re telling me your story later”, the bartender said, nudging the glass in Kagami’s way.

“Thank you, Tatsuya”.

“Just doing what a brother should”.

Himuro watched Kagami from the corner of his eyes to make sure the red head wouldn’t try anything reckless. At all times was he never to let Kagami off or he wouldn’t forgive himself if his brother ended up hurt because of his carelessness.

A group of girls attempted to invite the red head to have fun with them but Kagami brushed them off by dodging his shoulders. The red head was usually a polite man and even if he was gruff in appearance, he would never showed obvious rejection to the female population. These few nights must have been bad if it made Kagami rudely refused any form of advances.

When his shift ended, Himuro punched his card. His colleague thanked him for his hard work and filled in the next shift.

“Wait here. I’ll go change”, said Himuro kindly.

Kagami didn’t answer but he made no move going against Himuro’s request. The black haired man hurriedly got himself out his the bartender uniforms and put on his thinner layer casual cloth. The chilly air had him unconsciously tensing but he got used to the temperature almost immediately. After a wallet and a phone tucking later, he joined Kagami who was in a daze.

“Taiga, let’s go”, he shook Kagami’s shoulder gently.  

Kagami left his stool and followed Himuro out of the bar into the dark night.

*

There were two kinds of people in the world when it comes to keeping your home tidy. One was the type that let the trash accumulated and once it became unbearable then the effort to clean came through. Two was the type that keeps cleaning and made sure the place was clean all the time.

Haizaki fell into the first category. When Furihata first entered the small apartment with two bedrooms, he had almost blurted out how dirty the apartment was. Fortunately he didn’t go through with the deed or who knows? He might end up in the bath house again. Nowadays, rental was high and he should be glad that there was even a roof on top of him.

It had been five days since then and Furihata realized how the apartment could be very spacious if it wasn’t for the fact of it being in shambles. The place was already giving him nightmare over the course of his stay. He had lost touch of how many times he accidentally touched rat carcasses.

He should be glad, right? _Right?????_ Yet, the more he succumbed to his fate, the more the urge to clean the place grew.

A new mission clicked into place as he crossed his arms. He had to make it happen somehow, the idea of seeing some more floor of this very place. Even if he was grateful, there was no way he would allow himself accidentally touching another rat corpse.

_That’s just plain disgusting_ , he cringed. The brunet barged into the room of the person in question who was still tucked underneath his comforter. Haizaki sprung up when he heard the sound of his door being opened. Confusion took over him when the brunet stood with a dissatisfied face.

“Haizaki-san, I am very thankful for your hospitality”, said the brunet, “but I can no longer sentence myself to the environment you have provided me”.

“Huh?”

“I’m going to clean your house. Even if I don’t have the right to do so”.

“... Okay?” the silverette answered with much thought his hazy mind could muster.

“Alright, now that we have an agreement here, I need a couple of tools to do my job and I can’t seem to find them anywhere”.

“Gee, what are those things, I wonder?”

The brunet didn’t seem to catch the mocking tone and proceeded to list out the items. He even gave his wallet ( _Are you serious, Furihata?_ ) for Haizaki to do the shopping.

“You’re not coming with me?”

“Nope, I need to get started. At least, you have a broom. That’s good enough”.

“Oh, I have one?” came Haizaki’s surprised question.

“Found it in one of the cabinet”, Furihata helped the other stupefied man to get out of bed and pushed him to the entrance. The brunet helped him to get into his shoes, gave him his (Haizaki’s) phone and waved goodbye once Haizaki was out of the house.

With that, the door was slammed in his face.

“I just got kicked out of my own house”, Haizaki gaped in disbelief. He read the list again, scratching his head and moaned for having to even get out this early. There was also the fact he was carrying somebody else’s wallet instead of his own. While on that subject, should he turn around and grab his wallet?

The elevator arrived at his floor just when he was thinking of going back to his home unit. It would be a hassle to wait for another one so he boarded the carriage. The annoying part of riding an elevator was when it had to stop at every floor to pick up passengers. From having a lot of space, he was now reduced to a squirming piece of pole stuck among the bodies around him.

He was itching to get off and once they arrived at ground level, he squeezed out from the mass of people to free himself. Finally, he could breathe fresh air!

“Why am I the one doing this again?” complained the silverette.

Shoving the list inside his pocket, Haizaki walked in the direction to the neighborhood’s supermarket. He passed a hotel building that was under renovation. The drilling sound bugged the life out of him but he let it go. Nothing that he could do to make the sound disappear.

The supermarket was located across a love hotel, the only odd building in a friendly neighborhood. Whose bright idea was to build a place to screw in this area anyway?

_And why should it be across a supermarket? Doesn’t it bother families with kids?_

Since his plan to sleep longer was ruined for the day, Haizaki found reasons to burn holes on everything that passed him. Once inside the supermarket, a few customers had to back away, watchful of their actions as to not anger him further. He pulled out the list and glowered at the item names.

_Tch. This is going to be a long day._

*

“Dangling from the window sill, dangling from the window sill”, chanted Nijimura in a sing-song manner. Currently, he was hanging by a rope upside down with Imayoshi guarding the rope to make sure it wouldn’t snap.

“You okay down there? Do I need to go lower?” shouted Imayoshi from above.

“Maybe another ten centimeters!” Nijimura shouted back his order. The camera he was holding was tightly secured with a strap around his wrist.

Now, all of you were probably wondering why he was being lowered upside down of a building by his precious teammate Imayoshi. He was on a job mission and that job mission required him to risk his life in order to carry out investigation for Akashi Seijuurou.

His patron was a big shot in Japanese and International business world, one that had his fingers wrapped around both legal and illegal businesses. The government allowed him to waltz freely because his power didn’t only extend to business. Simply put, he was also related to a few other powerful senate members who had agenda of their own but still respected the younger Akashi, their nephews by bloodline. He had his influence everywhere he went, a rare gem that everyone wanted to erase desperately.

Now that Akashi was his boss, he cherished the memories of being the boss of Akashi when they were younger even more.

Seriously, who would have thought that the minor captain wannabe grew up to be one of the famous businessman in the world?

“Still my cute kouhai though”, mumbled Nijimura.

“Oi!!! Is that enough for you?!” Imayoshi shouted from above.

“Yup, can see the room!” answered Nijimura when he could have a good view of the room inside without revealing his presence.

There was nobody in it since the target must have just checked into the love hotel building. While waiting for his target to arrive, he observed the land below. He blinked a couple of times when he spotted a very familiar face walking towards the supermarket across the love hotel building with a scowl.

“Ahah, another kouhai spotted”, whistled the black haired male.

Just when he was about to snap a personal picture of said kouhai, his target entered the room with a high school girl and a few bouncers behind him. The girl looked troubled and Nijimura didn’t miss the eyeliner smudges on her face from crying too much.

He frowned when the target pushed her roughly onto the bed and began to rip her clothes off. Nijimura didn’t miss the chance to get a good shot of the scene, and caught a couple more just for backup before tapping the send button to Imayoshi’s synchronized phone. While waiting for the transfer to be completed, he put on a facemask and sunglasses to disguise himself. Once the pictures download was completed, he pulled out a Swiss knife from his pocket to undo the knot, swung the rope like a pendulum and when the knot was loose enough, he simultaneously exchanged his feet with his hands and gave it a final swing before crashing the window with a body slam.

The target had his mouth hanging when Nijimura made his grand entrance.

“Yo, sorry to bother you but I just can’t sleep at night if I allow a sexual assault happening right in front of me”, said Nijimura. The bouncers started to attack him in different directions but Nijimura took them down with ease. He executed roundhouse kicks and defended with blocks and punches. For a moment there, he was the badass in the room.

“Still is”, he said proudly when he successfully reduced the bouncers to lump of useless blockheads.

“W-Who are you?” stuttered the target.

“Oh, I’m just doing my job. Don’t mind me”, retorted Nijimura. He extended his hand towards the girl and, “Come on. Let’s get you out of here”.

The girl grabbed his hand. While on the way out of the love hotel, he noticed how she was under dressed and gave her his jacket.

“Here. You can’t afford going home with the way you are”.

Her cheeks went red from his implication. She took the jacket and put it on after thanking him.

“Okay, get out of here now”, he let her out using the back door. The employees in the back room just gawked at him and the girl.

“Will you be okay, mister?”

“Don’t worry about me. Now shoo, shoo”, he said. The girl smiled toothily and waved at him as she ran to the main road.

“Huh, I won’t be seeing the jacket ever again and that’s my favorite one too”, sighed Nijimura mournfully.

“Um... sir, this is the only employee allowed area”, one of the worker pointed to the sign on the door.

“Ah, sorry, sorry. I’ll be off now”, he said before stepping out from the room.

At the front lobby, Imayoshi was already waiting with their gadgets.

“Let’s go”, signaled the other.

“Actually, why don’t you go first? It won’t be good if we are spotted together”.

“Yeah, because you suddenly decided to play hero. Okay, I’m off”.

“I can’t help it”, Nijimura grinned.

“See you at the office”, Imayoshi set out to the carpark. He took off the facemask and sunglasses, tossing them inside the nearest bin. Luck was definitely on his side when the bouncers ran past him, not recognizing Nijimura as being the one beating them to pulp.

“Well, that’s over and done with”, he chuckled at the turn of event, “now, if I remember correctly, there is a certain someone spotted when I was on the job”.

He crossed the road to go into the supermarket. After searching from one section to another, he found the person he was looking for in the detergent section.

“Why the hell is this included in the list?” Haizaki reached out for the cheapest detergent bargain and put it inside the trolley. After all, he had a strict budget to follow with Furihata’s measly expanse.

“Hi, Haizaki-chan”, greeted Nijimura. Haizaki let go of the trolley’s holder and flailed in shock when the said sempai suddenly showed his face in front of him.

“Ni-Nijimura-san? And stop with the chan”

“Yup, I am. Are you doing grocery shopping?”

“Yes, I am. What are you doing here?”

“Oh, I just got off work. It’s a coincidence to meet you here. Do you live around this area?”

“A few blocks away”.

“Ohh, that means you can show me your place, right?”

Haizaki’s mind drifted to the state of his apartment. Like hell was he going to show that dumpster to anyone! Having Furihata seen it was more than enough and he had forced Haizaki to make the trip to supermarket just to polish the place himself.

“No”, came Haizaki’s immediate response.

“Aw, geez, why can’t you?”

“Not a good time”.

“Aww, too bad. Hey, are you almost done with the shopping?”

“Just one more item on the list”.

“Good, then, let’s have coffee after this. My treat”, said Nijimura.

_Am I dreaming?_ Haizaki shifted his gaze on Nijimura-san, feeling the butterfly in his stomach. The other was flaunting his widest grin, expecting him to take the offer. If Nijimura were to know his feelings, would he be seeing the same confident grin again?

“Well, since it’s your treat, I don’t mind, I guess”, the silverette relented to his invitation. Nijimura smugly gave him a thumbs up.

_If only you knew, you wouldn’t be coming close to me like this_ , thought Haizaki remorsefully, pushing the trolley for the last item on his shopping list with Nijimura walking closely.

*

Mr. Secretary brought out the superman mug set among other kitchen utensils in the pantry. Lately, his boss would only have coffee made in this childish mug and if he were to make it using a normal set, he would be sent away to redo the beverage.

“What’s gotten into Akashi-sama?”

He could only describe the boss’ actions as weird, for the lack of better word. Not only that, there was also a request to trace the phone number of Furihata Kouki which ended up in a dead end since the customer records of this Furihata person was old information the boss knew would get him nowhere. There was nothing unusual about this Furihata which led him to wonder what had he done to get Akashi fixated on locating him?

A meeting was going on in Akashi’s office regarding the company’s performance of last quarter and the secretary waited at his desk for a few minutes until Manager Mibuchi Reo left the room. He entered the boss’ room with the prepared drink and placed it on the table side.

“Thank you”, said Akashi, gripping the handle and bringing the mug to his lips.

“I couldn’t find anything about the person you requested”.

“Have you tried looking for his information with other telco?”

“Nothing is registered under his name as of today, Akashi-sama”.

“I see. What is next on my schedule?”

“You have a back to back meeting with the shareholders of Tomoyashi Trading Group at two and then, an evening tea invitation at your uncle’s house at four”.

“Order me a takeout. I’ll have my lunch here”.

“Understood, Akashi-sama”.

Akashi let go of the report in his hand, cracking his fingers out of habit to tone down his distress. Why, oh, why was it difficult to find Furihata Kouki? The red head prided his ability to search for anyone no matter where they were hiding in this world but this! He couldn’t even find someone who was living in the same country in the same province!

“Why the hell am I so obsessed about finding him?” grunted the red head. He almost wanted to drop the whole thing if it wasn’t for the fact how it interfered with his life.

What should he do now? What did he need to clear up by meeting with the mousy man again?

_Ah, isn’t he a friend of Tetsuya?_

Like a mystery solved, Akashi pressed on Kuroko’s contact hopefully.

“ _The number you have dialed is currently not in service”,_ was the answer he received.

“Is anyone going to answer me anytime this week?” the nerve of the universe to put him in a ridiculous situation!

“Akashi-sama, is everything alright?”

Ah, the secretary must have heard his shouting. He relaxed at the distraction.

“I’m fine. Thank you for your concern”.

“If there’s anything you need, you can reach me using the intercom”, the secretary shut the door to his office.

Veering his frustration onto work, Akashi picked up the report and started from where he left off. At the very least, he still had the mug as his companion even if it was just a piece of ceramic object. _Superman be damned_. _Make a better companion than anyone in the world._


	8. PART 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for all the reviews and the kudos. I can't be anymore grateful than this. Thus, here is another chapter for you guys. I don't own the characters and this is fictional. 
> 
> Alright, read on. ~

Swish, swish, clatter, clatter _._ The broom he dangerously swung at the small creature met the target but instead of sending it flying, the creature clung on the end of the broomstick. The outcome was hysterical swinging of the said broom and when the little creature fell off from the broom, it didn’t have the time to recover and was brutally murdered, leaving behind another corpse of an innocent sinner.

“Come out! Come out and show yourselves!” Furihata was burning with a soldier’s passion. He should be given a medal for having the gut to take down the rats’ colony. He would have called Pest Control service if he had more money in his wallet but since he was poor, he would have to bear killing them himself. There were just too many of them and he was growing tired by the hour.

“I feel like I’m living in a rat nest”, whimpered the brunet. Haizaki should put more effort cleaning his own place after this. How did he even manage to survive living in this rat hole?

He used his gloved hand to pick up the dead body and threw it quickly in the trash bag. Even with gloves on (which Haizaki’s neighbor had provided him her extras), he could still feel shivers crawling on his skin from having to deal with something dirty. Furihata tied the bag neatly and brought the tenth trash bag to the trash collection room. He left it in the unseparated section reserved for degradable trash. _Good riddance._

Furihata returned to the apartment. He had uncovered the floor finally and what’s left was to rearrange the furniture to make it roomier. He opened the window to let the air circulation in and what amazed him was how captivating the view outside. The bright sun showered its sunlight into the room and a small river stretched behind the building’s landscape. A group of kids were carrying fish buckets and fishing rods towards the river. For a moment, he felt nostalgic about his younger days.

Furihata didn’t dwell too long on his childhood for obvious reason. “Hmhm, now where should I start?” the brunet observed the number of furniture in the living room. He pushed the sofa to the side and adjusted it a few times. He carried the only side table in the living room and put it down next to the sofa. He failed to notice the bottle cap on the floor and slipped on it. Losing his balance, the brunet grabbed the edge of the table, tilting it towards the floor and leaving the drawer hanging out from its mount. A number of envelopes scattered out from the drawer, covering his body with their multiple colours.

“Eek, I hope I don’t break anything!” cried the brunet frantically. He pushed the table upright and moaned at the fallen envelopes on the floor and on him. He picked up one of the envelope and studied the handwriting.

“These aren’t sealed”, he said, noticing how the envelopes were not glued together. There were handwritings on top of each of them addressing the letter to Nijimura Shuuzou.

“Eh... is this for Nijimura-san? Why does Haizaki-san have them?”

 _Should I read the letter?_ The brunet held the corner of the envelope. It happened that the angling was enough to bring the letter out from its envelope. _I feel like I’m prying something private here. Oh my god, I shouldn’t._ His conscience might have spoken wisely but his hand was doing the opposite. Furihata unfold the letter and had the content skimmed through.

_“ **Dear Nijimura-san,**_

**_Ah, what the hell am I thinking? I feel so ashamed having written this piece of bullshit. Listen, I will definitely give you one of this letter and I am sure that you will be disgusted by my feelings. Nijimura-san, I like you. Urgh, you know I would never say that in real life! Can you picture me going up to you and confessing my feelings to you? If I am a character, I would be labeled OOC. Still, I am sure of one thing. You’re the best person I’ve ever met. I hope I can continue playing with you in the basketball team but I am sure that won’t happen. Urgh, I am all over the place. Shit, I’ll try this another day_ **

**_Regards,_ **

**_Haizaki Shougo_** ”.

Furihata paled. _Oh noes, I just read someone else’s love letter._ Not to mention, it was dated during his middle school year. He began to understand what the envelopes were – they contained historical records of Haizaki’s one sided pining of Nijimura-san in the past years.

 _I shouldn’t._ He scolded himself but his body reacted on its own by pulling out the most recent letter.

“ ** _Dear Nijimura-san,_**

**_For the years that I have let go, I thought we would never meet again but when we were reunited, this insanity of liking you start to resurface. You have become a mystery after the years that have gone by. What happened to you during the times I wasn’t there to witness? You seem to be someone different from the past you. Someone that I barely knew. Nijimura-san, my feelings unfortunately are unchangeable. I am still numbed by your presence and still are pining over the impossible. If you were to know me this way, I know from the corner of my heart, you would break any relationship you have with me out of disgust. Over the years, these letters are the only way for me to keep my desire checked. Please forgive me for liking you. Please don’t leave me even if you know this side of me._ **

**_Rejoice,_ **

**_Haizaki Shougo_** ”.

The writing style had matured somehow and for some reason, the recent letter held a lonelier air than the one written by Haizaki’s younger version. He did state he had at one point of time let the feeling go. Among the foothill of envelopes, there must have been a progression in it and against better judgement, he had pried. It was wrong of him to look into Haizaki’s history without getting his consent but now was too late to worry about it. The brunet folded the letters and neatly placed them in their respective envelopes. He stacked them back in the drawer and slid it into the mount.

 _What about me?_ Will he be able to even grasp the happiness yearned by many?

“What **is** love?” bit the brunet at the empty corner. His heart probably didn’t have any more room left for such emotion.

Furihata threw the bottle cap inside the trash can. He could never feel real love again, not after he lost it all. The pain only came when those you cherish disappear and it could’ve led him to total despair if it wasn’t for the fact that Kagami was there to support him.

_Just do what I normally do. Find a good wife and have a family. No point thinking too much about love when you can lose it easily._

*

Nijimura relaxed at the soothing smell of mint tea. He did suggest having coffee but he himself was not a big fan of the beverage. It could’ve been because of the years he spent in the British Force that he started to adapt to the idea of drinking tea. It could’ve also been a simple reasoning like how he was a Japanese man and Japanese man loved his tea. He didn’t believe much in the stereotype though so this preference was probably not because of his racial tendency.

Haizaki ordered sweet Latte for himself and taking advantage of the fact that Nijimura was paying, he added on a plate of green tea soufflé. The older male didn’t seem to mind at all.

“Thank you for treating me”, said Haizaki.

“You sure have grown very polite, Haizaki”, praised Nijimura. Pink colour rushed onto Haizaki’s cheeks and it got Nijimura fascinated.

“Someone has to punch me to make me this way. I was a big bully when you left”, admitted the silverette.

“Hm... you have reflected well then”.

“I guess. Anyway, are you sure this is okay with you?”

“Hm?”

“You sure you don’t want to split the bill?”

Nijimura shook his head. “Don’t worry about it. You don’t even have your wallet with you right now. Let me pay”.

“How do you know I don’t bring my wallet?”

 _If I tell him that I saw the name on the ID, he would definitely have suspicion why I can see the ID from where I was standing which can lead to another questions._ “I’m making a wild guess. Don’t think I guessed right, heh?”

“But you saw me taking out a wallet”.

 _Aish, how did he get this smart?_ “Well, like I said, I made a wild guess”.

The waitress came by in the nick of time to stop Haizaki’s interrogation to serve the soufflé. “Here’s your order, sir”, she said.

“Thank you”, said Nijimura.

Haizaki scooped a small spongy portion. “Ne, sempai. I have a question for you”.

“I’ll try my best to answer. What is it?”

“The other day, what do you mean by _thanks for chasing after me_?”

“Ah~ that day, I was running away from stalkers. Some dangerous bunch they were that I have to create a scene”, technically he wasn’t lying. He _was_ running away after deceiving a bunch of yakuza followers to gain entry to their boss’ office. Due to the fact that there was a link connecting the relationship between the financial minister and Kaito mafia group, he had to infiltrate the headquarters of the third most powerful yakuza family.

His company policy was to move each team in a pair but Imayoshi just had to catch flu on that day, turning the partner mission into a solo mission. He could only put the appointment facade for so long without having the glasses guy hacked into their system and injected false information into the group’s calendar.

He considered it was lucky of him to even be able to infiltrate as far as the boss’ office with just pure acting without having to rely on the fake calendar event. After that, he had to ask favour from Akashi to erase footages of him captured by the group’s security camera and for causing him the trouble, he was asked to take up the extra job of collecting blackmail materials for any individuals he deemed important enough to pin them down with their weaknesses.

“Stalkers? Do you want my help to get them off you?” offered Haizaki.

“Ah, I wouldn’t go that far. I would be troubling you”, Nijimura declined politely.

 _Why do I feel that he is not telling me the whole truth?_ Haizaki studied the grinning sempai sitting across him. Upon closer inspection, he realized how much the black haired male had changed. He looked strong and he wore an overlay mien that was hiding something else. The silverette couldn’t put his finger on what that something else was but for him to hide it, it must have been something vulnerable.

“What are you working as now?” asked Nijimura harmlessly.

“Huh? Why does it matter to you?”

“Don’t tell me you’re a NEET. Tsk, tsk, after that long lecture you gave me”, teased the older male.

“Of course not. I won’t go as far as becoming a useless NEET”.

“Then what do you do?”

“Customer Service. I work in a social support organization”.

His face reddened when Nijimura whistled.

“I would have never guessed that”, admitted Nijimura. Anyone wouldn’t if one had just met Haizaki for the first time. His punk look screamed criminal. Something like a street gang member would be befitting when in actuality he did the opposite of what he really looked like.

“Because of my appearance?” Haizaki shrunk at the commentary. Eventhough he had heard many renditions of the same comment made by everyone he had ever met, it still lowered his self-esteemed when it was coming from Nijimura.

 _You must have heard that a lot, huh?_ Nijimura resisted from reaching out to pat the silverette’s hair. A rush of guilt accompanied the thought – he shouldn’t judge the other by stereotyping. If he didn’t believe the Japanese man and tea stereotype, same was applied to labelling Haizaki with someone he wasn’t just by looking at his outer appearance.

“Hey, it’s okay, y’know. I believe strongly that you can be anything no matter who you are”, said Nijimura.

“Geez, thank you, sempai”, said Haizaki with an even mocking voice.

“I was trying to make you feel better”.

“Really? I thought you were quoting a reference from Zootopia”, Haizaki smirked victoriously.

“You watched Zootopia?” exclaimed Nijimura in high glee at the discovery.

 _Fuck, I made a mistake!_ Haizaki snapped his head at Nijimura with dread settling into his stomach.

“Aw, that’s very cute, kouhai-chan”, Nijimura propped his chin on one hand while holding the tea cup with another, “You must have liked the bunny a lot. Or do you like the fox? Which is it?”

“We’re not discussing about this here”, Haizaki deviated Nijimura’s attempt at ruffling his feather.

“Come on~ which is it? The bunny or the fox?” Nijimura suddenly stood and bent forward, entering Haizaki’s personal space.

 _Too close!_ Haizaki leaned backwards to give some space between them.

“The fox? Or the bunny?”

“I like Gazelle! Out of my personal space!” Haizaki concealed Nijimura’s face with his hand and pushed the other away. Nijimura returned to his seat, chuckling sinisterly with the new information learned.

“What’s so funny?”

“You are a mystery to me”, admitted Nijimura. His kouhai sure is interesting. _Boy,_ _I really shouldn’t judge a book by its cover._

They fell into a comfortable silence. How illogical to have so much fun over simple conversation but there it was, the fun just kept on going. _Maybe I can finally return to become who I was,_ the thought crossed Nijimura’s mind.

Ping. Ping. Ping. _Ah, Imayoshi, you son of a-_ the black haired male mentally cursed and pulled out the pager.

“It seems our coffee break is cut short”, said Nijimura when he saw the message on the pager. On it was summon to another briefing about their next mission.  

“Oh”, Haizaki couldn’t help but to feel a little disappointed. _Why do I have to care if he leave or not?_

“Before I forget, may I borrow your phone?” asked the black head.

“Sure”, Haizaki gave in to the request. Nijimura nimbly typed on the screen. When his own phone vibrated, he returned the model back to the silverette.

“I have your number now. Call you later”.

“What?” Haizaki was ready to protest but Nijimura smoothly made his way to the counter to pay the bill. Once he accepted his change, the older male flashed a smirk effortlessly and skipped out of the cafe. Haizaki’s shoulders slumped when he couldn’t see his sempai in the distant any longer.

 _Doing as he please_ , Haizaki found himself feeling a little peeved.

“Why is this happening to me?” he moaned dreadfully while telling himself that in the end, nothing fruitful would come out from getting more involved with his sempai.

*

Contract signing with Tomoyashi Trading went on smoothly despite having to extend the meeting. It had been an ongoing discussion before the signing was set into stone and Akashi saw that it was necessary to have dedicated courier for the product transportation. Five container vessels reserved a day meant that the client wouldn’t have to wait too long to receive their assets. The contract included full handling of border declaration and packing... not that there would be much packing needed for a company that manufactured military assets.

“If only I can secure armed safeguards contract to take care of the weaponizes’ security”, he mumbled.

The White Sedan rocked lightly at the uneven road and swerved into a street with expensive building erected on the side of the road. It slowed down as it approached a lavish bungalow that looked like a cottage house in England. When it stopped, the red head climbed out of the Sedan with his secretary appearing from the front passenger seat.

“Akashi-sama, you should’ve waited for me to open your door”, said the secretary.

“It’s fine. I can do small things at least”, dismissed the red head. The secretary excused himself and pressed the doorbell.

“Who’s that?” a small boy’s voice echoed out from the intercom.

“Akashi”, replied the red head.

“Brother Akashi? Yay!!! Papa, brother’s here!”

Akashi welcomed the excitement of his small cousin. He turned to the secretary. “Did you buy the pastry I’ve asked?”

“Yes. Let me get it”, the said secretary went to the front passenger seat and brought out a box.

The two men watched an excited child of ten years old running out into the porch. Right behind him was his nanny, old Akane-san who had the key set dangling from her belt to unlock the gate.

“Wait, Tooru-chan. Ah, I’m very sorry about his behaviour, Akashi-sama. He has been waiting for you to come since lunch time. Ah, yes, your uncle, Yamato-sama and Hatori-sama are waiting in the living room”.

“Tooru, be a good boy and listen to Akane-san”, said Akashi, patting the boy’s head when the boy grabbed his arm the moment there was no more gate separating them.

“But I haven’t seen brother since last month”, pouted Tooru.

“Ah, my apologies. I bought some pastries to make up for my lost time”, he showed the box held by the secretary.

“Pastries!!!” the boy jumped and sniffed the box. Tooru didn’t give him anymore trouble with the distraction serving its purpose. Akashi kept his shoes by the doorway and greeted the two men who were already having their tea without him.

“Good evening, dear uncles”, he said.

“Please, have a sit, Seijuurou”, bubbly uncle Yamato, the Foreign Relations chairman of Japan, received his arrival to his home with a smile.

“Thank you”.

“You’re a bit tardy, nephew”, Hatori, the budget chairman who was married to his mother’s sister, was a more disagreeable one among the two.

“I must have displeased you”, commented Akashi dryly.

“No matter. This is only a family gathering after all”.

“Ah, don’t ruin the air, Hatori-chan!” Yamato slapped his back playfully.

“I would appreciate it if chan is removed from my name. It is quite unbecoming”.

“Auh, don’t be a stuck up here. We’re here to have some family time”, Yamato reminded the purpose of having everyone there. “Don’t mind him”, Yamato made a dismissive gesture.

The maid came and poured another cup of tea. The red head raised the cup and sipped on its rim. He found the mint flavour refreshing and relaxation from business took over him.

“How is your father doing?” asked Yamato. His last memory of the older Akashi was his hospital visit when the older Akashi was first admitted into the ward at the beginning stage of his regressing memory symptom.

“He is still recovering,” the red head answered simply.

“Seijuuro, are you still angry at your father?” asked Yamato when he saw the tension in Akashi’s shoulders.

“I don’t have the need for pointless emotion”, said Akashi.

“Is that so?” Hatori looked amused.

“He is not in the state where I can bring myself to be angry at him”, said Akashi.

“And if he is well, you are implying that you will?”

“Let’s leave the question about my father out of the discussion when he is not even here. It is ruining the good atmosphere”, the callous remark made by the red head put a halt on the topic about his father. Hatori wanted to comment on Akashi’s disrespect but the icy eyes made him faltered.

Tooru walked in with pastry plates, oblivious to the tension between the two men. “Come on, brother. Have some pastry that you bring. They’re quite delicious”.

“Thank you, Tooru-chan”, Akashi took the small plate from the child.

“Here is for uncle and here is for papa”, the child distributed the plates to the other two adults.

“You’ve raised him well”, praised Akashi.

“Ah, Tooru is usually a polite young man”, Yamato grinned at the compliment. “Go play with nanny”, Yamato urged the child to leave in which he did gladly.

“That reminds me, a group of government officers came to my office talking about donations campaign”, said the red head after he put down the plate.

“Oh, the campaign. I’ve heard about it being mentioned by other senators”, quipped Yamato.

“Doesn’t the government have their own budget to cover a campaign of that scale, Uncle Hatori?”

“...We are only asking participation from companies to gain support for the betterment of community”, answered Hatori.

“Our tax fund are no longer sufficient? I had my secretary does the calculation. The amount they’re asking are not too far from the tax the companies paid yearly”.

“What are you trying to imply?”

“What I’m saying is, it is hardly a _donation_. To me, it is another form of early taxation”, answered Akashi.

Hatori lips were firmly tightened and his brow wrinkled at the unsettled feeling. “You are making donation ethically wrong”.

“Hardly”, the red head tutted. “If anything, the word donation here is being abused”.

“Have you seen the number of families on the street? You should be glad not to be like them”.

“Hush the lecture, uncle. My employees are working at extending helping hands to the poor”.

“Interesting. I would have never thought that we need support to carry out a simple soup kitchen activity”, Yamato said.

“Involvement is a way to preach to the rich about the poor”, Hatori replied.

“If my memory serves me right, the companies in Japan must support social reconstruction activities since the first day they become active. That legislation is already in place”, said Yamato.

“That’s where it makes the whole thing... a lot more apprehensive”, pressed the younger red head.

“The ministry decided that it is time their active participation become publicly known. Media will be involved”, said Hatori.

“I have not given my finality on this proposed donation. However, it still left me with quite a bit of questions”, admitted Akashi.

“I’m afraid my mouth is sealed here”, Hatori said defensively.

“I see. That’s alright. I’ll find out eventually”, the red head replied.

The rest of the evening went by with the past discussions about the political happenings. Akashi took note of a few senators’ names that came out in relation to the donation activity and the newly introduced structure to monitor the companies’ social activities. The implementation, in the younger one’s head, was redundant. Unless there was a catch to the new structure, Akashi thought the current report handling method was sufficient.

On his way home, he went over again what he had learnt. _That Hatori bastard knows a lot_ , and his rejection to let him know gave him inkling of how well acquainted was Hatori to the campaign.

 _He thinks he can hide for very long. He even try to rile me up about father on purpose. What was he trying to achieve there?_ He felt resentment resurfacing.

Akashi never let anyone overstep their boundaries. They needed to be reminded if they had forgotten. Hatori was doing just that. However, for now he would let the old man roamed free. There were still other thing to take care of.

One of them being Furihata Kouki.


	9. PART 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi, here is the update. Thank you for the Kudos, reblogs and review. Also, I'd like to mention here that I would be traveling for two weeks so until then, there won't be any update. TT.TT
> 
> Anyway, see you guys then!

Himuro groaned at the additional weight on his chest. Even with the air conditioner on, he noted how his body was far from being cold. He recalled having Kagami over and they had a talk about his drinking and also his problems.

_“Kuroko left on his own accord, Tatsuya. He left because he cheated on me”._

Kuroko cheated on Kagami? They had had so many encounters that he wouldn’t judge Kuroko to be the kind of person to cheat. Could it be that the teal haired man orchestrated it so that he could leave? That was a more plausible explanation.

Weariness worn down his body and Himuro found it rather strange. His muscle twitched from cramps and his eyes refused to open. His head throbbed wildly like he had a few drinks too much. The conversation they had last night must have left them both intoxicated with beers his boyfriend had stocked up for when he needed them. He wasn’t supposed to feed more alcohol into Kagami’s system but the red head would only talk it out when he was really drunk. To get the burden off his chest, Himuro handed him at first only one can but that one can rule wasn’t really obeyed. He massaged his temple and made a mental note to replace the beer later and to send Kagami to Takao’s office.

 _“And you believed him? Taiga, what if that’s not true?”_ he had inquired.

What if Kuroko was only acting this way because of his insecurity? In the last meet up, he did share a glimpse of it with the rest of them. _That idiot Kuroko. Didn’t you say you will talk about this with Taiga? Look at this mess you’re making out of him!_

When another cold skin grazed his skin, the black haired male shivered. Last night, he must have shared the bed with Kagami. The guy was his guest after all but he should be mindful where he put Kagami next time. At the absence of Murasakibara, if even a hair ended up in his room, the tall giant baby could misinterpret the whole situation. He sort of miss his baby though. When will he return from the conference in America?

However, a memory startled him and the thought of Murasakibara was pushed to the back of his mind.

_“We mustn’t. Taiga, we mustn’t. This is wrong”._

_“Please, Tatsuya. Let me forget the pain”._

Himuro’s eyes went wide as saucers instantly. The memory of last night sunk in and he struggled to sit upright among the cans of beer that had clouded his judgement the previous night. They weren’t in his bed but sleeping on the guest futon he must have pulled out to accommodate Kagami. His eyes scanned the body on top of him and their naked skins confirmed him of what they had done the night before.

 _Fuck! Fuck! I fucked up_. Himuro gagged when feeling of regret invaded him. He had allowed something stupid to happen at the absence of his lover. He held his mouth, trying to push the bile down that was threatening to come out. As if another reminder was necessary, the stickiness of last night account inside him was more than enough to show him that it had all been real. He hadn’t been dreaming, something he wished he had. But he hadn’t. _Stupid! Stupid!_

“Tatsuya?” Kagami stirred from his sleep when Himuro was moving restlessly. The black haired male immediately put a cork on his nervousness. He shouldn’t show his weakness in front of his brother when he was already so vulnerable.

He pulled himself together and braced himself to keep Kagami from hurting himself further.

“I’m here. Kagami, wake up”, Himuro shook the other gently.

“Huh?” Kagami had a confused look the moment he woke up. It had been quite a while since he had slept well. Five days of restless nights must have caused him to automatically shut down.

He was even more confused when he saw Tatsuya naked. Only when realization of what he had done the night before sank in did he turn pallid and got onto his feet.

Seeing how he was also in the same state, last night then did happen.

“I fucked up”, said Kagami, inching away from Himuro, “shit, what have I done to you?”

“Don’t blame yourself. It’s my fault too”, said the black haired male. The conversation they had last night was meant to help Kagami let out his problem. He shouldn’t add alcohol in the mix. His tolerance to the substance was low despite being a bartender but he trusted himself he won’t do anything he would regret.

The trust was misplaced. _I should’ve been at least the sober one!_

“I’m sorry, Tatsuya”, the red head apologized again. His head spun dizzily, compelling him to sit down on the sofa next to the futon. He pulled his knees up and had them closed up to his chest while his face hidden in his hands. Himuro crawled over until he was in front of Kagami, putting his hand on the red head’s knees. This was what he didn’t want to see in the aftermath of his mistake. His internal conflict forgotten, he wrapped his arms around Kagami tightly.

“Look, Taiga. If anyone is to be blame here, that’d be me. You have already endured a bad breakup. I should be the responsible one”, said Himuro.

“This is not about that”, Kagami tightened his hold around his knees, and “I have betrayed your trust”.

“Taiga, if I don’t blame you, you should not blame yourself”.

“Someone has to take the blame here. I can’t let you take all the blame”.

“Taiga, I’m not going to let you play this blaming game”.

“You don’t understand. I don’t only betray you. I betray Murasakibara and Tetsuya”, said the red head hopelessly.  

“Let’s keep this a secret between us then”, Himuro bit his lower lips. Kagami looked up, Himuro’s poker face only gave away indifferent. Like his mistake was not a weight to be carried around, like he should leave it all to Himuro to resolve it.

“What if someone discover this?” he whispered.

“Taiga”, said Himuro firmly, “no one will discover this. Last night, I helped you sort out your emotions and this has never happened”.

“But what about the guilt?”

“Forget _this_. I was here to help you sort your emotions and that was all that happened”.

“Tatsuya”.

“Listen, Taiga”, said Himuro but Kagami looked away, too ashamed to meet Himuro’s eyes. The black haired male clasped both of his hands against Kagami’s cheeks and forced the other to meet his eyes. “Hey, hey”, Himuro scolded when Kagami’s eyes wandered away when he needed the other to look at him. When their gazes locked again, Himuro said,

“Listen, Taiga. I don’t care about how wrong this is because even if we tried, neither of us can travel back in time to stop us from screwing. What we can do now is denied that we had in fact screwed. You are my brother and I swore I will take care of you. The least I can do is offered you a way out and your job is to accept it. Understand?”

Kagami nodded hesitantly. Himuro wasn’t going to let him become the punch bag and he dug his heels in on this one to protect Kagami.

A part of Kagami wanted to smash the whim of iron Himuro had to tell him how unfair it would be but one thing that Kagami had learnt in their inseparable years, once Himuro made a decision, he wouldn’t change his mind based on anyone else’s opinion.

Himuro let go of his cheeks, a satisfied smile tugged on the pale skin. “Hold your end of bargain, okay?” he patted the red strands.

“Hmph”, grunted the red head.

“Do you want breakfast?”

“Just water and something light to eat. My head hurts”, whined Kagami, his queasy stomach wrestled with the urge to vomit uncomfortably.

“Yeah, I’ll get some painkiller to pop in too”, said Himuro, standing up and clumsily staggering into the kitchen. _I should put on pants_. His own head was hurting but he concentrated on finding the painkiller in the medical cabinet where Murasakibara had kept all the medications.

*

Kasamatsu entered the office with a hand clutching a folder in his hand, reciting the points in his head of what to be laid out to the department team. The surging calls still beeped on the phones even when it was nearing the end of night shift hour. The employees in the customer service department tirelessly answered the customers who was using the social service and this was a usual progression of the day in Dakota.

Dakota Social Center is an established non-profitable organization powered by 45% of the Japanese companies but while being a non-profitable organization, it didn’t mean that they didn’t have a structure and employees. It is one of the multinational organization that had taken root here in Japan with an objective to solve Japan Social problems. The most prominent one was suicide which was seen as regressive in the birth-declining country.

A lot of projects ran by Dakota was targeting this issue. One of the project was to provide communication center where the citizens could express themselves. That was the very essence of his department. In here, Kasamatsu took the role of department supervisor and as a very reliable supervisor, he would have briefing with the team members during the morning shift transition to tackle any issues in workplace.

This morning wouldn’t be any different from all those weekdays.

“Good morning all. As usual, let’s have briefing before we start the morning shift in ten minutes”, he called to everyone. The heads turned and the ones on the phone requested for the customer to wait for a while. Kasamatsu always had important topics to fill them in and they appreciated his effort to keep them informed.

Once he had everyone’s attention, he began the briefing and kept it as short as possible. The ex-captain of Kaijou was no fan of draggy talk after all.

He broadened his shoulder and made a brief eye-contact to everyone there.

“There are two things that I am going to talk about with you guys today. The first one is the addition of a reservation system. Ragnarok System has offered to carry a voluntary project to create online reservation system for the customers.

We recognize that at peak times, the number of calls are overbearing and thus, some of them might not even be able to connect to the line. To improve this, we will introduce a system where the customers can reserve a slot number for a given time and will be served during the slot reserved.

The second thing is about Annual Leaves. The management has agreed to add two day contractual annual leaves which will be in place in May. All of you will have to go to HR to revise your contract before May. Any questions?”

Haizaki raised his hand. “How will we contribute to the voluntary project?”

“Ragnarok System will send a representative to take down the requirements and current system study. I hope you guys will cooperate with them in the future. Anything else?”

He took the silence to mean the meeting had come to an end. Everyone returned to the task at hand, the night shift employee were already preparing for handover. The supervisor sauntered to where Haizaki and Furihata were posted. He hit the folder lightly on the brunet’s head, grinning satisfyingly when Furihata whined at his action.

“I tried calling you several times last night since I have plenty of leftover to share but my calls are not getting through”, said Kasamatsu.

Furihata stiffened; the remark did remind him of something he had been burying in the back of his mind for a while now. “That’s right! I haven’t bought myself a new phone!”

Haizaki who had forgotten about it let out an, “oh”. He had been too used having Furihata in his apartment that it never occurred to him how the brunet did need one on him all the time.

“Huh? What happened to the old one?” asked Kasamatsu curiously, losing his grasp on the conversation. Something must have had happened to the phone if Furihata needed it replaced. He hardly believed that ‘the new phone’ was needed for the sake of trend since the brunet was not one of those trend followers.

“It got run over by a lorry”, Haizaki chipped in, “For now, if you need to call him, you’d have to call me”.

“You can reach him?” asked Kasamatsu in bewilderment. If he wasn’t mistaken, the two men lived in separate towns.

“He’s staying at my place”, said the silverette, filling the gap with the story how it happened. Kasamatsu listened keenly, chuckling at the phone thieving part and commented how he wished he was present to see all that. The whole time it was told, Furihata burned in embarrassment and wondered if there was a shovel around for him to dig a hole to hide in.

“Well, I’d be bothering you for a while, Haizaki-san. Anyhow, I have meetings until two. You guys have your lunch first and then lock out an hour to talk about your performance at four. I’ll make it quick”, said Kasamatsu, tapping back on his supervisor role.

“Yes, boss”, Furihata teased playfully.

“Ah, that’s pleasant to hear somehow. Catch you guys later”, the older male excused himself. They watched him go in awe; that Kasamatsu sure was a busy man having to attend all these meetings.  

Furihata logged into his account and checked the inbox before starting his day. Haizaki’s line was already beeping and the silverette answered the first call of the day. There were already wrinkles marring his forehead once the caller began his chattering about his problems.

It was a wonder why someone like Haizaki would choose this particular job. He didn’t seem to be the type who would be comfortable mingling with strangers, a contradictory personality to their role that have a lot of socializing mixed in and if this thing was a breeze, they would have just sit back and relax while listening to the customer’s anxieties. Unfortunately, the job description was more complex than that; they were not just there to listen but to also take action if necessary. That was what it meant by working in Dakota’s customer support department.

After reading the newsletters Furihata cared little of, he opened the Microsoft word document where he had kept all of his activities in the previous years. He was updating the new entry’s date when his line blinked. The brunet picked up the receiver, starting the conversation with a formal introduction, “This is Dakota Customer Support. I am Furihata Kouki. How can I help you?”

A moment of silence later made the brunet arched an eyebrow. “Hello? How can I help you?” Furihata asked again and was about to hang up the call after waiting too long on the line. It was then when he heard strings of whimpers and wheezes. He pressed the receiver back next to his ear, ebbed by a force to answer it. Gently, he coaxed, “You don’t sound okay at all. Please, tell me how I can help you”.

The sobbing suddenly turned into a full blown crying. By this time, he could tell the gender of the caller being a male. “Sir, I want to help you. Please, tell me what’s wrong”, coaxed the brunet harder.

“F-Furihata-kun”, replied the caller, “Furihata-kun, it’s me Kuroko”.

 _Kuroko?_ He started to question why the teal haired man had made a call to Dakota. He never pictured Kuroko to have problems. The crying that refused to cease brought out a sense of pity from the bottom of his heart. Its sound tugged a string of his heart, making Furihata wished he could be there for him and helped patched him back from whatever fall he had taken.

“Kuroko-san, why are you crying this much?” _Why are you in pain?_  

The strangling pants between sobs interlaced with Kuroko’s words. What was said next had had the brunet jerked forward, searching desperately for a pen and a piece of paper. It caught Haizaki’s attention who sported his own worried look at the agitated brunet.

“F-Furihata-kun, I-I don’t think I can live on anymore. It’s pain-hic-painful.I don’t think I can live on”, was repeated like a chant on the other side of the line.

 _Shit. What the hell happened?_ The brunet internally panicked. “W-Wait, Kuroko. Don’t do anything rash please. I’ll be going to your place right now. Can you give me your phone number and address?”

“I-I’m at my parent’s place. My-My number is 678899299”.

Furihata jotted down the number quickly. “Okay, stay there and don’t do anything that can hurt yourself, understand?” 

He grabbed the jacket he had hung on the chair and his briefcase. “Haizaki-san, I’m going to work onsite today. Can you tell Kasamatsu-san I won’t be able to make it to the performance briefing?”

“Okay, I’ll let Kasamatsu-san know later”.

“Thanks”, said the brunet and quickly, he ran out of the building to catch the next train. On the way to the train station, he took the opportunity to get himself a new cellphone and registered his new number with the telco provider.

As he boarded the passenger carriage, he sent a text message on his trip interval to check on the teal haired male, informing him that this was his new number. Little did he know that day how his fate and Akashi’s was about to intertwine again.

*

Mitobe stepped out of the shower in his trousers with a white towel hung on his shoulders. A bed away from his own was a giant lump covered by two layers of duvet blankets, a sight he had seen enough for two weeks to last him a lifetime. A few strands of purple hair had found their way out at the end of the layer while the rest was hidden from view. The older man quietly sat at the end of his bed, scrolling his facebook updates for posts about his two small daughters at home.

His previous marriage hadn’t been the most successful ones. His ex-wife remarried, shoving the responsibility unto him after the divorce. Having two daughters to raise was a challenge since he would be away most of the times on conference trips that he had no other choice but to leave them in their grandmother’s care. Sometimes, Koganei would come over to play with his kids and it left him feeling guilty given that his old friend did have a wife and a son of his own to be with.

They had only two days left before the conference officially closed its curtain and he would be once again reunited with his children. These few days, they had been focusing on security enforcement for every sectors. Japan, being a part of Global Law Association or otherwise known as GLASS, must also implement the new regulation set up by the higher members in the association. There were quite a few that would require their votes, usually resulting with him and the other representative pulling an all-nighter interfacing with the Japanese senate chairmen till the dead of the night.

 _The_ other representative was still dead to the world as we spoke. Glancing at the clock, Mitobe made the decision to interrupt his friend’s beauty sleep. They couldn’t afford being late to the conference that would start in an hour a few floors below.

“Murasakibara-san”, he uttered the name flatly. Murasakibara Atsushi was one of the top officers in the senate who happened to be someone he was well-acquainted with in his high school days through their love for basketball. They had met a few times in tournaments and at leisure events but Mitobe never foresaw himself working together with Murasakibara. When he was first shown to his new partner, the black head couldn’t help but to be surprised at the introduction of Murasakibara Atsushi as a congress representative.

Well, he was one to talk. Imagine the surprise Murasakibara had when he saw how Mitobe was capable of speech. “I am also a functional human being. Having the ability to talk is a given”, said Mitobe when the purple head mentioned about his muteness on previous meetups one day. Maybe he did give everyone the impression of verbal inept. Come to think of it, even the Seirin team was surprised to learn the fact he could talk.

“I can’t really blame anyone on that”. He threw himself on the bed and stared at the ceiling.

“Murasakibara-san, it is almost time for the conference”, said Mitobe. The lump moved slightly and with one swoop, the blanket was sent to the floor.

“I really, really don’t want to go to the conference”, whined Murasakibara, “all those shitty old farts only talks about are rules, votes, implementations, yada-yada. Don’t they know when to stop?”

“We must not appear feeble doing our assignment, Murasakibara-san”.

“I get it. I get it”.

Mitobe got up, picking up his duffel bag on the floor. He pulled out a pack of 3 in 1 coffee mix, one that he had brought all the way from Japan, and poured the mix into the hotel mug. Mixing in the hot water, the foam formed on the surface. He broke the foam with a stir of the spoon, steaming hot was the cup of coffee in his hand.

He was enjoying the brief serenity when Murasakibara walked out of the shower fully dressed. The coffee smell brought out a demanding hand of the purple head.

“Mitobe-san, do you have any more sachets?”

“I happen to have quite a few. Here”, Mitobe passed him a sachet of the mix. Murasakibara brightened up and had the coffee made immediately.

“I miss Japan and its food”, the purple head sniffed the smell of the coffee, his shoulders slackening in relaxation.

“Don’t you find the food here pleasing?”

“Definitely not the candies. They’re too weird”.

“Some of the delicacies here are pretty good actually”.

Murasakibara cringed. “Nothing can beat Maiubo. Ah, how I miss home. I want to see Muro-chin”.

“Why don’t you call home?”

The purple head shook his head, an unpleasant aura surrounded him. “No way. If I call Muro-chin, I will buy the next ticket to go back to Japan. The conference be damned”.

“Ah... we can’t have that”, agreed Mitobe.

“But this is where Muro-chin grew up. I’m not too sure if it is this part of US but he must have walked on this ground when he was younger. It makes me want to see all the things that he had seen”.

“I guess the same can be said for Kagami. We have one day off after the conference. Do you want to go around California just to have a look at the landscape?”

“Hmmm... since we’re here, we should check out the street basketball”, Murasakibara suggested.

“I do have to agree with that notion”, Mitobe found himself agreeing. It wasn’t that rare to travel but this had to be the first conference they had to attend in US. Since basketball was popular in this side of the world, there would be a lot more splendor to discover. It had been quite a while since his last game in basketball. Now was a good time to continue the adventure.

They finished the drink, exchanging remarks on how to look for streetball facilities. Agreeing that they would need to use google later in the end of their discussion, the two men wore their suit jackets, smoothening any noticeable creases. Murasakibara went over the documents passed on the day before and the discussion notes he had taken when talking to the Japanese Senate chairmen.

“Let’s get this over and done with”, Mitobe said, pursuing the curtains fall with a new vigor.


	10. PART 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sometimes, we acknowledge the pain but we still bear them. Old past may not be easily forgotten, can be amplified beyond sanity. For the good or for the worse, we try to strive. If we chose to neglect... it can snap the only string that keep us alive.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi all. Here is the addition to this ff. Been off for a long time , haha. I hope you guys like the chapter.

Nijimura glared at the stack of papers that had just been dropped on his desk. In this day and age, why did his company still kept the documentation in hard copy? Wouldn’t it be easier to have a soft copy stored on a server? Seriously, where was the modernized solution when one really needed it?

“This much? This will take me all night!” Nijimura protested at the man who had brought the stack to him, Imayoshi.

“Now, now. You know why we need to get them all down as soon as possible before the end of the claim cycle”, Imayoshi tapped on the stack encouragingly. The glasses wearing man dropped on Nijimura’s desk a brown envelope that was bounded by a string.

“And this is?” Nijimura trailed off at the impending doom.

“The receipts to claim. I have them all kept inside the envelope”, said Imayoshi, flopping himself down graciously at his workstation.

“Do I have to?” Who knows... if he whined enough, he might be able to get off the hook. Doing claims was a painless job but excruciatingly boring.

“You know the answer to that so I’m not going to entertain you”, Imayoshi drew an ‘X’ in the air. Nijimura pulled the kicked puppy face but the glasses guy, known for his meanness, drowned in his own laughter. He had more important business with his computer than listening to Nijimura’s whines after all but not without taking pleasure from other people’s misery.

“You’re cruel”, Nijimura gave him a pointed gaze. Picking up the first paper on top of the stack, he began to scribble on the form, writing down the remarks where necessary. He carefully chose his words since the management was very peculiar with professional prose and terms.

While he was burying his nose in the stack, Imayoshi was cracking his brain for the new assignment. They didn’t have to go to the site fortunately so he can take a break from all those labor work.

All he needed to do for this task was to break the password to the documents in the USB flash disk. Oh how his element tingled in excitement!

“Those Kaito mafias sure know their stuffs”, Imayoshi praised them well when a password interface popped on the screen. Wherever he touched on the keyboards made for a bridge to his own program, the black screen of his command prompt was buzzing with responds of failures and successful connections. Once the web elements were connected, he ran a program to identify the algorithm the document was coded in, carefully watching the result being displayed on the command prompt. It went down the list but none returned him positive.

“I’m not getting the key”, he pondered out loud.

“Can’t you brute force it?” asked Nijimura without looking up.

“That would take so long and god knows if it will corrupt”.

“Make backup”.

“Yeah, I’ll do that. Anyway, I’m going to take this files to Baby Dragon”.

“Pft. Who named the servers that?” snorted Nijimura. Baby Dragon... nothing about it was like a baby dragon and the number of server stacks took up a whole level on its own. It was a subzero zone down there and wasn’t a dragon supposed to breathe fire?

“Oi, I name it, okay! Don’t make fun of the little Todd”.

“Little... Who did you marry to get a child like that?”

“You just don’t understand the beauty of it but I do and that’s enough for me”, Imayoshi grinned at the thought of visiting his baby after a month of doing onsite job.

“Whatever. I don’t jack off to servers and that’s enough for me too”.

“... Fair enough”, Imayoshi shrugged his shoulders and left his sight. He continued to give his all in filling in the documents.

When Nijimura’s eyes grew tired and after swallowing two bottles of red bull, he tossed the pen aside and leaned back against the office chair, bouncing the seat back and forth lightly.

“How do people even survive this shit?” he glanced at the paperwork menacingly, hoping that it would catch fire and became ashes. Ah, but then again, no one was here to force him to get back to work since Imayoshi was too busy playing with his baby dragon. There was also his phone just sitting on the desk, waiting for him to pick a contact to make a call or to send a text. Usually, he would send text messages to his mother since she was readily available all the time but he had a different thing on his mind today.

He waited patiently, listening to the dial tone and was pleased when he heard an annoyed “Hello, Haizaki speaking”.

“Hi, there. Remember me?” asked Nijimura, holding back his laughter.

“Huh? I don’t know whose number this is. Can I know who is speaking?”

“That’s cruel. I’m pretty sure we’ve met before”.

“Sorry, man. I think you’ve got the wrong number”.

“Oh, no. Come on, you know me. Take a guess”.

“Who the hell is this? Hey, man. I don’t have the time to play your games. I still need to do my work here so I would appreciate it if you let me know who you are”.

“I’m telling you to take a guess”.

“Huh, I’ll hang up then”.

Nijimura physically jerked forward, “Wait! Wait! Haizaki, this is Nijimura and don’t hang up the phone!”

“... Nijimura-san? Why are you calling me?”

“Well, for no particular reason”, the black head laughed nervously, rubbing the back of his head.

“Then I’m hanging up”.

“Waiiittt!!! What are you doing right now?”

“Working”, snorted Haizaki.

“What time are you going to be off from work?”

“Huh? Why does it matter to you?”

“Come on, just tell me”.

“The normal COB hour”.

“That’d be 5.30, right?”

“Yeah. Anyway, I got to drop the call now”.

“Sure, see you later”.

He put the phone back on the table, whistling to himself contently. For some reason, his kouhai had had him acting like a high school boy all over again. No, even as a high school boy, he never acted this carefree. Imayoshi was also puzzled when he saw how his partner had completed half the stack by the time he returned from the server room, something that Nijimura rarely achieved unless he was in a good mood.

“Wow, never thought I’d see the day you will work this hard”, said Imayoshi, pointing at the depleting stack.

“I always work hard. Prime example in the company”.

“Urgh, keep the self-compliment to yourself”, Imayoshi returned to his workstation, shrinking in his own seat while staring at the computer screen miserably. Nijimura noticed the change of mood of his partner and began to ask.

“So, how long will it take to crack the password?”

Imayoshi rubbed his nose after removing his glasses. “Actually... I fucked up Baby Dragon”, he confessed frankly.

“... What?”

“You heard me. Baby Dragon crashed when I poked the damn thing on the server”.

“No way. No wonder you’re upset”.

“That’s what happened. I would have to rewrite the whole server again from scratch”.

“But it didn’t crash your computer”.

“Because it’s not a server. Whoever wrote this program is challenging me to crack the password without using brute force. Once it identified the machine as a server, it will destroy it. That’s why... My Baby Dragon...”

“But using your computer will take tremendously long time”.

“The head realized this and is going to issue another mission”.

“What’s the mission?”

“Don’t flip on me, alright? We’re re-breaking into Kaito group headquarters”.   

*

 _Finally. Finally!_ The secretary once again read through the email sent by the manager in one of the Telco Company under Akashi’s group. The days of having to deal with his listless boss would finally come to an end! He collected the printed document excitedly and rushed to bring it to his boss.

Soft creaking sound broke the red head’s concentration and his eyes wandered to where the entrance was. His secretary pranced in, flashing him the smile of _I did it_. There were times his secretary would forget himself and came in without knocking the door. One of the occasion was this one but certainly it wasn’t something new to Akashi. Should his secretary be like this, he could either anticipate good news or bad news and from the look of it, he would be hearing a good news.

“Akashi-sama, our group Telco have sent us an email regarding the individual you are looking for”, the secretary proceeded to place the document on top of his desk. The man felt accomplished, posing when the moment of spotlight shone on him.

“When is this?” the red head asked, collecting the new document, ignoring the ones he was reading.

“It was sent ten minutes ago. Furihata-san has signed up a contractual agreement for a new phone today. Luckily for us, the location of the phone can be tracked by the Telco’s GPS application”.

“Have the car ready and the application installed. I’d like to meet him”, was Akashi’s immediate decision when the secretary was about to leave the office. Said secretary twisted snappily at the order with obvious disagreement.

“But Akashi-sama, you have a meeting with the management team at two!”

“Cancel the meeting”.

“But Akashi-sama...”

“Do I have to repeat myself?” Akashi dared him to protest, promising severe consequences if he were to disobey. The secretary fearfully shook his head, quickly leaving the office to send out memorandum about the cancelled meeting. If one wanted to keep his job, one should not cross the CEO of the third largest company in the world.

For now, he just had to endure the trail of complaints he would be getting later.

*

 _House no. 2. This is the place._ The mocha eyes drew themselves towards the name on the plate. Sure enough, the plate was labelled with ‘Kuroko’. Gulping the air, Furihata rang the doorbell. The house in front of him was quite large compared to his parent’s three bedrooms terrace house in the past. Clearly, Kuroko was somewhat from a well-off family. To afford a landed properties in Japan did take some money, something that Kuroko’s family clearly had.

An old lady, holding some resemblance to Kuroko, emerged from behind the entrance door. Having seen Furihata several times when he was in high school, she immediately recognized the brunet.

“Ah, Furihata-kun! It has been a while since I last saw you!” she greeted.

“Yeah, it’s been a while. How have you been doing?”

“I am doing fine. The gate is unlocked. Come in!”

Furihata thanked her for inviting him into her humble residence. “Um, I am actually here to see Kuroko”.

Mrs. Kuroko looked a little sad. “That child, he’s been worrying me so much, Furihata-kun. He is in his bedroom, the first one on your left”.

“Then, I’ll be going to his room. Thank you, Mrs. Kuroko”. His footsteps clomped against the wooden surface on his climb to the first floor. Kuroko’s door was shut tightly. Furihata tried the doorknob but it was locked. Using the back of his hand, he knocked on the wooden surface.

“Kuroko-san. Kuroko-san, it’s me, Furihata”.

He stood there like a lamppost by the road side. Muffled footsteps resounded and it grew louder the closer it got to the door. Furihata watched the doorknob turned slowly, building up a small suspense like he had seen on the TV. The first thing he saw between the gaps was darkness. The next thing he saw was one side of the teal eyes staring at him. The dim light in the hallway contoured the bag underneath Kuroko’s eyes. Furihata hesitantly widened the gaps with a gentle push until he could see Kuroko clearly. If he thought Kuroko was pale enough, now he was just downright sickly.

“Can I come in there, Kuroko-san?” asked Furihata.

“You can”, Kuroko stepped aside, his voice cracking dryly. Furihata excused himself and entered the dark room. It radiated with Kuroko’s presence and Kuroko never had presence which made this beyond normal. How long had the other man cooped up in a room in his frustration?

He managed to barely avoid from tripping on an object with little light to aid his movement.

“Um, Kuroko-san, if it doesn’t bother you, can I pull the curtain aside? It’s a bit difficult to walk in the dark”.

“I don’t mind”, Kuroko said and when the sunlight flooded into the room blindingly, the teal haired male squinted to its brightness.

“That’s better. Kuroko-san, sit here next to me”, Furihata invited after having seated himself on Kuroko’s bed. The other closed the door and made himself comfortable next to the brunet. Furihata studied the messy hair, swollen eyes and puffy nose. Kuroko must have been crying a lot in these few days.

_He must have been through a lot._

“Kuroko-san, do you want to talk about it?” asked Furihata gently.

“Just Kuroko is fine and yes, if it helps me lift this burden, I’d like to talk about it”.

Strangely enough, the teal haired male welcomed the idea of talking to Furihata. Perhaps, if there was anyone out there that he could talk to, it would be the brunet.

“I’m facing a little predicament”, he started and the brunet refrained himself from interrupting. Kuroko sighed longingly, his shoulders slouching forward in defeat.

“It is all my fault”, the blue orbs looked at the door, “I’m a foolish man who wants to give his lover something he deserved but in the process, I hurt myself. I just want him to be happy. Why is that so wrong?”

“Kuroko...”

“I couldn’t give him something more precious than my life. I would end him. I... Is it wrong to let go for the better?”

“Kuroko, what are you feeling now?”

“Sad, anxious, angry... I feel empty”.

He clung on Furihata’s sleeves, his bang creating shadow on his face. A small jerk came from the brunet, quite possibly from the shock of his sudden action.

It was because Kuroko always adhered and thus, this Kuroko was unfamiliar. Never before his weak state was sighted until now.

“Kuroko? Are you alright?”

No, he wasn’t alright but instead of answering, he drowned himself again in tears. He couldn’t look up; his eyes were red and it made him scared of what kind of image he would be giving to his former teammate. Always, he was the strongest one but the cut on this one was deep that he couldn’t see himself standing up again.

Kuroko’s eyes widened when Furihata trembled. He forced himself to take a look at what was happening.

By his side, the brunet was also crying.

“Wh-Why –sniff- are you crying?” asked Kuroko, very, very confused.

“Don’t die, Kuroko! -Sob, sob, sob-”

“I didn’t -” he was taken by surprise when the brunet just threw himself into hug.

“You did! –sob- don’t make that face like you’re about to die!”

A baffled Kuroko rubbed the back of the brunet who was crying uncontrollably, his own tears drying. Furihata was mourning as if he was losing someone precious but the one who was hurt was Kuroko – then why was he crying with so much sorrow?

“Furihata-kun, are _you_ alright?”

“-Hic- No”, came the muffled answer.

“I was the one who had his heart broken. Shouldn’t I be the sad one?” asked Kuroko sadly.

“-Un- No, you’re still alright. You’re still alright so that’s why. –Sob- Move on”.

Something was off about Furihata when the brunet suddenly came to a still. Kuroko’s shirt dampened from the brunet’s tears and he noted how the brunet’s breathing pattern turned shallower. Kuroko peeled himself from the brunet only to come in contact with a pair of lifeless eyes.

“Don’t die, Kuroko”, Furihata said while struggling to catch his breath. His eyes were unfocused, almost as if he was looking pass Kuroko.

“Mother...”

“Furihata? Look, I have no clue what you’re talking about”, Kuroko grabbed the other on his shoulders.

It was as if the act itself was aggressive; the brunet reacted to it by shoving Kuroko away forcefully.

“Don’t! DON’T STOP ME! I NEED TO SAVE THEM!”

Kuroko jerked backwards at Furihata’s hysteric shouting. Without warning, Furihata sprung to life and headed to the open-air balcony. He watched the other crossed the sliding door as if he was possessed by an invisible power. When the brunet tilted forward over the metal pole, jolted back by a sudden realization, Kuroko instantly rushed over to grab the brunet’s body from slipping off the balcony.

“FURIHATA, NO!” Kuroko shouted, trying to get back the brunet’s consciousness. He held close Furihata’s waist in the attempt to stop the other from climbing over the fence.

“LET ME SAVE THEM!” the brunet struggled to let loose from Kuroko’s binding hands.

Kuroko tightened his hold. “FURIHATA, SNAP OUT OF IT!”

Furihata stopped in motion. His focus drifted in and out. Kuroko let go of him when he was sure Furihata wouldn’t do something stupid like jumping off the balcony. Furihata turned and leaned against the fence, a streak of teardrop trailed down his cheek.

“Stop me, please”, he mouthed and just like that, he let loose of his weight to the gravity. In horror, Kuroko watched the brunet slipped off the balcony.

“FURI!!!!”

*

Furihata had never seen Kuroko so broken. Seeing Kuroko so human stirred fear in him; why was that even the strongest could be beaten up to ground?

Seeing Kuroko so human reminded him the coldness in him. Seeing Kuroko so human made him feel empty.

For a moment there, he saw his own reflection. Kuroko was a life depiction of that time when he felt like he could die just from sadness. He clutched his hands into a fist, his own tears ran down his cheeks involuntarily.

_Don’t succumb to the pain, Kuroko!_

“Wh-Why –sniff- are you crying?” Kuroko asked. _Why am I crying?_

He cried because that was how he looked like then.

“Don’t die, Kuroko! -Sob, sob, sob-” _Because that’s how it was for me!_

“I didn’t -”

“You did! –sob- don’t make that face like you’re about to die!” Furihata rebutted. Even if it didn’t cross Kuroko’s mind right now, it would sooner or later. _Don’t wear that look! If you do, I will hate myself._

“Furihata-kun, are _you_ alright?” _Am I alright?_ Furihata asked himself the same questions times and times again but even when the years had passed, the scar was never truly lost.

“-Hic- No,” he answered honestly because it was the truth.

“I was the one who had his heart broken. Shouldn’t I be the sad one?”

“-Un- No, you’re still alright. You’re still alright so that’s why. –Sob- Move on”. Kuroko was still okay. He could still live on without having guilt.

His head ached and his eyes burnt. Furihata closed his eyes and when he opened them again, he had returned back to that time. His senses were flooded with smoke scent and the heat of the fire. The place where he was sitting was no longer soft but the coarse road. All of the scars on his body throbbed as if it was fresh from the incident.

In front of him, the moment he looked at it, was the face of his gentle mother. She pointed to his back and just before she disappeared, her whisper lingered, “Save us, Kouki or come with us”.

“Mother...”

Furihata tried to move but his body was restrained. The fire was getting fiercer but he couldn’t move. He looked down to see shackles binding him into place. Around him, the firefighters, the nurses, his neighbors sneered at his incapability to break free from the shackles.

“Don’t! DON’T STOP ME! I NEED TO SAVE THEM!”

When he felt a person grabbed his shoulder, he shoved them forcefully. Just like that, the shackle broke. Furihata freed himself and stood up. He walked to the fire where his mother had pointed.

_I will save my family this time!_

He was almost stepping into the burning house when a few other people blocked his way and the shackle clamped around him again from behind.

“LET ME SAVE THEM!” he shouted raucously.

“FURIHATA, SNAP OUT OF IT!”

Furihata had heard those words uttered before. By his bedside at that time when he was hospitalized, Kagami pulled him out of the risk of falling into the depression.

And yet, he didn’t return to the time when he was supported. Right in front of him, just like that time, he watched the house disintegrating to ashes.

_No. I can’t watch them die again._

He turned around to find Kuroko standing behind him instead of Kagami. The same hand was not there to reach out to him, nor was it there to stop him.

“Stop me, please”, he pleaded for the last time.

_I just can’t live on with this guilt. I’m sorry that you have to see this, Kuroko._

He offset his weight, surrendering himself to the world below.

Just like that, he watched his life flashed before his eyes.


	11. PART 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Midorima just being a doctor. Hmmm

_He had fallen off the balcony!_ It was the only thought that crossed Kuroko’s mind when his whole body was frozen stiff. He didn’t have the time to react; that all he could do was just watch the whole cinematic flickered before him powerlessly. Nothing seemed to be registering; horrifying silence drew his attention onto the scene right before him without missing a single beat.

It must have been then when he missed the timing of a flash of red entering his view.

“Why are you still standing there? Help me pull him up!” his help was demanded out of him. Kuroko wondered if he had hummed his agreement or nodded; everything stopped making sense to him and yet, the command had him moving in a blur. The shock still hadn’t left him by the time he had laid Furihata on his bed and the sense of time was ever slowly returning to him.

“I- I”, his hands couldn’t stop shaking violently. “I didn’t expect that he would do that”.

“Tetsuya”.

“It wasn’t me. I swear. He moved on his own. If-” he choked on his sob, “if he had fallen off...”

“Tetsuya, calm down”, a hand pressed on his back.

“If he had fallen, he could’ve died!”

“It’s just a floor above. The worse that could’ve happen is he’d have broken bones”.

“Did you see in what position he was in?” Kuroko snapped and glared at the person who were trying to reason with him as if nothing bad could’ve happen. There were news in the world where people died from a step of wrong footing. How could anyone reassure him that the brunet would be spared of death just because he fell off from a floor above?

When red hair donned in gel and combed backwards, red eyes that were farther from calm and the usually soft face holding strong expression entered his view, Kuroko’s eyes turned bleary. As much as he was angry with him, Akashi was probably having the shock of his life too, judging from the worried face he was making.  

“Akashi-kun”, he uttered Akashi’s name and just like that, tears started flowing down from the corner of his eyes.

“He’s alright”, the red head reassured, appearing unaffected by the situation when it was far from the truth.

“You saved him. I’m thankful”, the teal haired man smiled with his tears rolling freely down his cheeks. Akashi mirrored him with a small smile of his own.

Akashi hadn’t got the chance to reply once his secretary walked into the room looking anxious. It just took him one look at the unconscious brunet and a crying Kuroko for him to cosset all over his employer.

“Akashi-sama! Akashi-sama, are you hurt?” asked the secretary frantically.

“I’m fine. Thank you for your concern. However, I can’t say the same for my friends”, the red head replied. In truth, he had probably twisted his arm when he was catching Furihata in an awkward angle but the pain was dull compared to what his heart had gone through.   

Indeed, Akashi was far from calm. He arrived just in time to hear yelling from Kuroko’s bedroom. To ease Mrs. Kuroko’s worry, he had offered to check on them since the old lady would be tired running up the stairs to see the commotion, only to witness the second before Furihata fell off the balcony.

The moment the brunet leaned off the railing, Akashi’s breathing stopped momentarily and he felt a chill running through his spine. _I’m going to lose him... I’m going to lose him..._ his mind chanted and he just knew he had to capture Furihata or _my world would be gone_.

Without thinking, his body jumped into action and he bolted towards the balcony. He grabbed the ankle of the brunet using his least dominant hand, managing it at an awkward angle, holding on while looking at Kuroko to get him to help him. Kuroko was too shocked to even notice his presence (his eyes never left Furihata) and only started moving when Akashi pronounced his order.

Akashi didn’t let the emotion got the better of him most of the time. He had refined control of his feelings over the years of taking over his father’s position but in rare cases such as this, they elevated beyond normal that his feelings overtook his composure. Even though they weren’t that obvious to another audience, he himself acknowledged how he was fretting inside. He could easily become frozen in place like Kuroko but his instinct reacted faster than his mind to save the situation. He was thankful that his body just knew what to do when his mind couldn’t process the judgement abruptly.

“Akashi-sama’s friends... ” The secretary turned his attention to Kuroko and the unconscious brunet, “Ah, why are you crying? Did you injure yourself? And what happened to him? Is he dead?”

“You’re making him uncomfortable and he isn't dead”, Akashi frowned deeper. The secretary stopped his fussing and pushed his glasses up to compose himself.

“I apologize for my behavior”, said the secretary. He noticed how Akashi kept clenching his hands into a fist. Whatever that had transpired, his boss was probably trying to help but ended up injuring himself.

“Akashi-sama, your wrist doesn’t look too good. I’ll get the first-aid kit from the car”, said the secretary.

“Also, please get Kuroko here a glass of water and a clean wet towel as well”, Akashi added his own personal request.

“Of course, Akashi-sama”. The secretary needn’t to be told twice as he bolted down the stairs in urgency to grab the items he needed.

“He’s always like that so I hope that didn’t bother you too much”, said Akashi.

“No, I’m fine with it. It was quite amusing”.

“I won’t ask you how it happened. If it helps”, the red head added thoughtfully.

“Thank you, Akashi-kun”.

“However, you have to follow me to Shintarou’s office”.

“I’m fine”.

“You’re obviously upset about something. I have not seen you cried so much like this and I’ve known you since middle school, Tetsuya and how composed you can become”.

Kuroko didn’t look up from his feet. Akashi was one of the people who could read people’s emotion easily that he knew. This trait allowed the red head to do many things to people; psychological warfare, debates, manipulation and to some extent lodging fear in his audience. This trait was also what made Akashi a genuine leader. Coupled with his argumentative ability, the red head was one of those people Kuroko could not lie to no matter how stoic he appeared to be. The same could be said about him.

With Kuroko crying hurtfully, it was only natural that the red head came to a conclusion something had troubled him. His suspicion became more obvious when he offered to take Kuroko to see Midorima (along with Furihata). Akashi was really shameless when it came to utilizing the benefit of becoming Midorima’s friend.

“You won’t let me off the hook, would you?” his wiped the trace of his crying with the back of his hand.

“Do I have to remind you, Tetsuya?”

Kuroko cringed at the knowledge of Furihata had been _chopped_ not too long ago because he refused to seek medical attention.

_This is... troublesome,_ Kuroko thought remorsefully.

*

_They had graduated high school, a step forward to spread their wings further than home. Furihata hadn’t performed badly himself in his exam; he was already accepted in one of the university in Osaka for business and administration major. He noted the differences in everyone’s reactions – Fukuda was crying (that big baby!), Kawahara was teasing him, Kuroko looked mildly amused at those two reactions and Kagami was teary eyed (on the verge of joining Fukuda’s crying club)._

_Their favourite seniors (Kiyoshi, Hyuuga, Riko and everyone else) had attended their graduation, partly to congratulate them and partly to scout them into the university’s basketball club. Seirin had laid claim on champion title two years in a row and in the third year, Rakuzan had claimed the champion limelight with Seirin as the Runner up._

_It had been fun being in the basketball team and if there was one thing he regretted to have been a part of the graduation package was the fact that they would have to leave the basketball team they loved so much. A few of their juniors surrounded them to wish them congratulations and invited their seniors to have a graduation dinner to celebrate the occasion. “Senpai, now that you guys are about to leave us *Wearegoingtomissyouaf*, we’d like Captain to give a few words and call the toast!” announced one of the noisier junior._

_Furihata stood up, grinning at the attention he was given. A few years back, he would’ve become queasy just having to give a speech but he grew out of his nervousness and was completely comfortable to deliver his words, one that probably shed some tears at their departure._

_“Guys, thank you for arranging this celebration for us. We appreciate it so much”, he said. They heard Kagami jokingly muttered “Do we really?” and the other members erupted in laughter._

_“We all have worked hard to get to where we are now. We have come so far, from a small basketball club to this size”, he waved his hand to the side. “Sadly, we’d have to leave you guys to open a new chapter of higher education. Therefore, I’d like to announce the young man that is going to take over my position. Everyone, meet your new captain, Kyle”._

_A blond haired young man stood up to bow at everyone. Kyle was transferred to the school in the middle of the year from America and he had a wide experience in basketball, with him participating in a number of American under 16 National Championship since he was scouted at 11 years old. When Kyle’s parents had to be transferred to Japan, he refused to go to private school and attended daily school to broaden his horizon. He had heard about Seirin’s past achievements and was intrigued to join them. Kyle had proved himself worthy of the position in a short time. Coupled with his good socializing skill, he immediately became the team’s favourite._

_Vice-captain was Kojima Hamtarou and he was almost similar to Hyuuga in the way he behaved. The rest of the team laughed when Kojima sputtered nonsense in his shock at the new title he was given with. He recovered after a while and expressed his happiness to be given the chance to lead the club together with Kyle. When Kiyoshi pointed how very similar they were, Hyuuga had thrown a remark about his idiocy and how they wouldn’t survive the competition if it hadn’t been for his leadership. Coach Aida slugged him in the stomach for the comment. After all, she had been the one delivering the training course to bring out the winners in everyone._

_They ate all the food until their stomach couldn’t handle it anymore. When it was time to depart, they all said goodbyes and went back to their respective homes. Furihata watched them all go and only turned when he couldn’t see their backs any longer. The temperature was not as cold as winter but the spring breeze still sent the chills down to his spine. It was a little saddening that he would have to move on from the high school life but the unknown in front of him gave him a faint feeling of anticipation. It was a good feeling until the black sky was stained with an amalgam of disarrayed spectrum of light and the peace was broken by distant chaotic noises._

_While distracted by the glaze, a man wearing a piece of handkerchief to cover his face ran passed him. Furihata couldn’t tell the colour of his hair in the dark but while the man was dressed in suspicious get ups, the bright light that was coming from his house’s direction worried him more. Alarmed, the brunet broke into a neck breaking pace towards where the chaos was. What he saw made his legs shook._

_“Where are my family members?!” he asked his neighbour who was too scared to speak._

_She gingerly pointed towards the house._

_“There. All of them are in there”._

“FURIHATA-KUN!” a hand smacked his face, leaving behind stinging throb on his cheek. Furihata found it difficult to breathe but he was pulled up to a sitting position to make it easier for him to catch his breath and a hand comfortingly rubbed his back as he tried to calm the wheezing.

Furihata’s eyes immediately locked with Kuroko’s blue ones. The teal haired male looked so worried as if something had happened... yes, something did happen and as the memory resurfaced, he hid his face in shame.

It took a moment for him to realize that he indeed had hidden his face in shame and that he had used someone’s shoulder to do so. He slowly raised his face and noticed the red hair strands. Immediately he let go and fell off on his bum. The wet towel stuck on his forehead slid off and landed with a _splotch_ next to him.

“I-I’m sorry! I didn’t know it was you, Akashi-san”, stuttered Furihata.

“I don’t mind...” the red head trailed off while Kuroko returned to one of his placid faces.

“Furihata-kun, there’s a space here. You can sit beside me”, Kuroko said, patting the space enough to squeeze him. He mumbled his thanks and squeezed next to the teal haired man. Furihata was about to rapidly apologized when Kuroko stopped him with a placid glare. He unclenched his fist and hung low his head. All of them needed to rest their mind first before kicking back into motion.

The silence was interrupted by the sound of the secretary’s climb to Kuroko’s room. “The car is ready, Akashi-sama”, he announced. Akashi nodded and turned to his companions. “We’ll be going to Shintarou’s office”.

“But I feel fine”, Furihata mumbled weakly.

“We will be going to Shintarou’s office”, there was no room of argument when Akashi repeated his intent. Furihata hesitantly walked out of the door, followed by Kuroko and then Akashi. They huddled in the back of the car with Kuroko’s mother expressing her gratitude for having the situation under control. Akashi soothed the lady and assured that everything would be taken care off. They left as soon as the red head boarded the car.

Another journey went by quietly. They arrived at the hospital where Midorima was working at, shocking the life out of the green haired doctor at their unannouced arrival. When he saw Akashi’s injury, Midorima wasted no time to treat his friend. Furihata winced at every unpleasant commentary Midorima said as he treated the twisted wrist. It had all been his fault.

The doctor asked the nurse to take Akashi to another room to put a cast on while he tended to his two other patients.

“Kuroko, what happened here?” asked Midorima. Kuroko just leaned back against the chair, recalling every bit of pieces of the event. Midorima listened and were taking note here and there and once the teal haired man ended the story with “and now here we are at your office”, the doctor put down his pen.

“Why were you there?” he asked the brunet who was sitting stiffly on his chair.

“I-I was going to help Kuroko sorting his... his problem”.

“And what is the problem?” he asked again.

“It’s confidential. I’m not going to talk about it”, the brunet said firmly.

“Fine. I’ll just ask _the client_ himself. What was the problem you need sorting out, Kuroko?”

Kuroko was quiet for a while, weighing down the harm of the information. However, he knew Midorima would pursue the matter and wouldn’t let him leave his office until he could find the root cause.

“My relationship with Kagami-kun”, said Kuroko. Midorima had heard about it from Takao not too long ago. The breakup did have Himuro dragging Kagami to Takao’s office one Monday morning to make sure his alcoholic escape hadn’t damaged any of Kagami’s organ. The green haired man was sure he wasn’t the right person to help Kuroko with whatever turmoil he was facing. So he called his boyfriend instantly without even consulting the teal haired man.

“I’ll make sure you get an earful”, Midorima said while waiting for Takao to pick up the phone.

“Hello, Kazunari. I’m doing fine. You don’t have to worry about me. Can you come to my office? No, I’m not doing adulterate activities in my pristine place. I’m calling you because I’ve apprehended Kuroko. Hey!” Midorima hadn’t even finished talking when Takao hung up the phone. The last message he got from his boyfriend was that, “I’ll be there in a sec”.

Midorima placed the phone on the stand and studied the brunet closely. “You. This is the second time you’ve come to my office”, he said.

“He has a name, Midorima-kun”, Kuroko looked at him pointedly but Midorima ignored him.

“If what Kuroko said is true, then you need further consultation. I have a few friends in psychiatry department and I can refer you to them”.

“I-I’m not mentally ill!” Furihata argued back.

“Meeting a psychiatrist does not make you a mentally ill patient. Sometimes you go there to get advice”.

“And be labelled with some mental illness? I’m afraid I’d have to let the offer pass”, the brunet would not budge from his decision. He worked in Dakota after all. If he couldn’t even handle his own problem, how could he expect to solve his clients’ turmoil? It was a matter of image and principle. He would not meet a psychologist, not even if someone crippled him to bring him there.

Furihata fidgeted in his seat when another man walked into the room. Dressed in plain white t-shirt with a checkered jacket tied around his waist was Takao.

“There you are, Kuroko. Is he free to go, Shin-chan?”

“You can have him”, said Midorima, pushing his glasses up.

“You can’t do as you pleased, Midorima-kun”.

“Watch me”, he let his boyfriend dragged Kuroko away by the arm. That left Midorima and Furihata alone in the office. Akashi was still waiting for his cast to be done a few rooms away. They exchanged glares at each other but Furihata was the first one to lose when Midorima intensified the glare by narrowing his eyes.

“As much as I’d love to play games with you, I’m going to check for any sign of injuries”, the doctor walked over to Furihata. The stethoscope was detached from the doctor’s neck and he ordered the other to lift his shirt so he could press the metal end of the tool to Furihata’s back.

He checked Furihata’s arms and hands, then his head and his eyes.

“There’s no sign of injury. However, it could’ve been worse”, said the doctor, scribbling the note down on his patient’s card. “Kuroko said you were hallucinating. What did you see?”

“It’s personal”, mumbled the brunet.

“Anything you said here is confidential. You can just blurt and I won’t breathe another word about it”.

Furihata studied the other for a while. Midorima took his job seriously and that meant he would keep his word about his oath of secrecy. The brunet’s shoulders slackened.

“I saw the fire, my mother... and I was chained but even when I can still move, I couldn’t save them”.

“I’m sorry for your lost”, Midorima offered emphatically.

“I- I saw Kuroko for a brief moment”, said Furihata.

“Did he say anything to you?”

“He told me to snap out of it”.

“How old were you when it happened?”

“I just graduated from high school”.

“Hm... before this, have you ever hallucinated to this point?”

“It’s the first time for me”.

Midorima was thoughtful for a while. He narrowed down to a few things that could cause hallucination. “Have you been taking any form of hallucinogens before?” asked the doctor.

“No, I wouldn’t go that far”, Furihata shook his head.

“Have you ever met with any psychiatrist in the past?” asked Midorima. Furihata was only a minor back then and every hospital taking in newly traumatized minor patient would have to issue the case to a doctor and a psychiatrist to help them move on. If he could find out who took Furihata’s case before, he might be able to have an insight on the cause of Furihata’s hallucination.

“I was assigned to Doctor Kiriyama”, said Furihata. Midorima froze immediately as soon as the name slipped off from Furihata’s lips.

“How long were you under his care?”

“About six months”.

“Do you remember if he had given you any form of medicine to consume?”

“He gave me a number of pills. He said they would make it better for me”.

“When you visit him, what did you usually do?”

“I can’t remember...” Furihata tried to think hard about his past visits.

Midorima began tapping his fingers on the desk. He remembered reading an article about Kiriyama in the medical text book. The doctor was infamous for his abuse of power and had been made an example in his text book of irresponsible acts that all doctors must not commit in their practices.

When he read the article, he was amused by how Kiriyama seemed to turn all of his patients into a test subjects. Some of them died in the process, the luckier ones had only a few side effects and were constantly monitored. They had a list of his victims tabulated on the next page of the article and he never saw Furihata’s name appearing on any of the rows.

Perhaps he was being paranoid. Perhaps it was a different Kiriyama taking the case. Midorima wasn’t one to leave everything to fate either despite his reputation with Oha Asa predictions. He scribbled a note on the patient’s card with the additional information he had obtained.

“I’m afraid I’d have to monitor you for a while”.

“Are you trying to imply something?” asked Furihata in irritation.

“Worry not. I’m not trying to imply anything. I’m just doing my job as a doctor and that is to help you get better”.

“I don’t have the time to -“his mouth shut when Akashi entered the room with his arm cast made.

“Did I miss anything?” asked the red head.

“You come in at a perfect time. Your friend here will have an appointment with me every week and I need you to help me make sure he attends them all diligently”, Midorima snickered when he saw Furihata gaped at his dirty move.

“Ah, I see. I’m glad that I can be of use”, said Akashi, taking a seat next to Furihata.

“It’s okay, Akashi-san. I can go to the appointments on my own”.

“I insist. In fact, taking a car is much more comfortable than taking the public transport”.

“But -”

“I could use a little break from time to time. I wouldn’t mind accompanying you to meet Shintarou. After all, he can be a little overbearing at times”.

Midorima glared at Akashi’s comment but the red head pretended not to see him. Furihata laughed dryly. Seriously, why can’t Akashi read in between the lines that he might not want him to agree to Shintarou’s idea of chaperoning Furihata to the hospital?

“Now that everything has been sorted out, I’d take a final look on the cast and then you may go”, Midorima announced.

‘Let’s get this over with so I can see my next patient’, Midorima thought as he walked over to Akashi to examine his cast.


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Regret kept eating away the longer one keeps it away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A big thanks to my friend who kindly lent me her laptop.

Takao didn’t let go of Kuroko’s wrist the whole time they were heading to where he planned to have a chat with the shorter male. He made sure to secure his grip tightly, tightening it whenever Kuroko made an attempt to shake him off. Across the hospital was shop lots corner with many options of cafe to go to. He was heading to a particular cafe in the east wing of the shop lot area since that was where he had agreed to wait for Kagami to arrive.

The plan was simple: bring Kuroko in, had Kagami walked in, let Kuroko explain himself and let them sort out their life. Takao had this soft spot for every single one of his patients after all and what was he to do when the red head obviously needed his help?

The chime of the entrance bell announced their arrival to the waiters in the cafe. A man with sleek black hair attended to them as soon as he saw their entry. After giving his name for the reservation he had made, the waiter showed them to their table. Kuroko who wasn’t much for creating a scene in front of strangers sat down hesitantly, all the while frowning at Takao.

The raven head ordered his coffee after he was seated while Kuroko had chosen nothing from the menu. He was still uncomfortable being in the vicinity of Takao and was well versed with the fact that the raven head was always up to something. Takao just happened to be one of those small population who just seemed to know how to rub Kuroko the wrong way.

“Well?” Kuroko decided to drop any form of courtesy.

“Hm?”

“Well, why do you drag me here for?” asked Kuroko pointedly.

“Ah... we’re here because I have a question”.  

“Shoot”.

“Why did you do what you did?” asked Takao in all seriousness.

“What did I do?” asked Kuroko back.

“Aha, very funny, Kuroko. I know you know what I mean”.

“I’m not sure I’m following”.

Alright, if Kuroko insisted... “Why did you break up with Kagami?”

“It’s none of your business”, Kuroko replied defensively the moment it hit him that Takao was going to budge into his problem. If this was Furihata, he wouldn’t mind sharing; the brunet would probably understand him but Takao was not the person Kuroko felt comfortable discussing things with. Especially when it concerned his decision.

To someone like Takao, what he chose to do was probably a stupid thing but he was only thinking of Kagami’s well-being. If you truly loved someone, shouldn’t his future become a part of his priority?

“Look, I know you don’t want to talk about things with me but I am willing to hear. I won’t judge you but I do need to know why you decide to leave him so that I can put my patient back together”.

“Patient? What’s going on?” Kuroko’s eyebrows knitted together slightly.

“Well... your ex-boyfriend was trying to get over you with alcohol. I have to prescribe him some sleeping drugs for whenever he fell into depression mode. Sleeping is better than drinking yourself to the ground”.

“That’s...”

“It’d help me if you tell me the reason so I can help Kagami”.

It wasn’t what he intended to happen. When he left, he wanted Kagami to find someone else who was worthier than him. Did it concern him that the red head easily slipped into a reckless behaviour? Yes, since they had been together for so long and Kagami was his friend first before his object of affection.

“That idiot...” Kuroko muttered, his shoulders slumping down in defeat.

“You shouldn’t have left him unsupervised then”.

“I swear to god he would be the end of me. Look, I left him because I want the best for him. Unlike me, Kagami deserves a family. A good wife and kids”.

“Is that why you left me?” it startled Kuroko when a new presence made himself known. He tensed and didn’t miss the smirk on Takao’s face. The raven head stood up and gestured at Kagami to take his seat. _That sly man!_ Kuroko mentally cursed.

“Why don’t you guys talk some more? Have a retrospective, what went wrong, what went well and come up with a decision to resolve your little problem. I’m going to work now”, Takao waved his goodbye and left the shop after picking up his coffee from the waiter. Kuroko never noticed that the raven had ordered his coffee for a takeout since he was too busy frowning at Takao earlier.

“Is it true? You left me because you want me to be happy?” Kagami asked softly, his eyes trained on the table like he was about to break it.

“...” truthfully, this was one of his biggest fear, the confrontation. Even if he had expected that it would happen sooner or later, Kuroko had hoped it would happen way in the future when Kagami would show off his future wife and kids so that the teal haired man could be sure he hadn’t made mistake with his decision. Unable to deny it, the teal head nodded.

“Why do you think it would make me happy when you are not in the picture?”

“Look at you”, Kuroko suddenly growled. “Look at yourself and tell me, when have you not think about it?”

“Why are you pinning this on me, Tetsuya?” Kagami growled back. The two men looked away from each other. They rarely fought when they got together and even if they did, it was always trivial but this was different. Kuroko could feel the heavy weight pressing on his shoulder.

“Look, I just want you back. Is it so hard that we be together again?” asked Kagami after calming himself down. It won’t do him any good to be lashing out at Kuroko.

“I don’t think we are that in love to begin with to continue on with this relationship”.

“You’re spouting nonsense. I love you with all my heart. Can’t you feel it?”

“Taiga, I don’t leave you because I hate you or love someone else”, Kuroko felt the need to correct himself, “but I don’t want you to be with me. You know there are many things I can’t give even though I love you so much. And I want you to find the happiness you truly long”.

“Do you think I can really be happy without you?” was Kagami’s reply. Truthfully, he only ever loved Kuroko and no one else and yet, here he was being asked to find another for his own sake. Didn’t Kuroko know what is best for him? He thought that the years they had been together would strengthen their understanding of each other. What seemed to unfold was doubts and regrets.

“This is your wish, isn’t it?” asked Kagami weakly. Admitting defeat seemed to be the only way lied ahead of him.

“Let’s end this on a friendly term”, Kuroko finally made eye contact. He could still feel the weight but at least it wasn’t so heavy with remorse.

“Let me buy you a cup of warm chocolate drink at least”, said Kagami, waving at the waiter to come by.

Kuroko made a small smile. They started with Vanilla and ended with Chocolate. He was going to miss the vanilla shake Kagami always made for him for a very long time and was going to stay away from Chocolate just as long.

\--- An unfinished business ----

The car skidded into the parking space and by skidded, he really did mean _skidded_. “Murasakibara-san, I do believe that driving carelessly can put us both out of commission”, Mitobe finally uttered his thought after he was sure he could speak without biting his tongue.

“But we are almost late for the meeting with the council”, whined the purple giant. Mitobe looked at his watch. They had roughly ten minutes to be prepared for the round table discussion. There was a delay in their arrival; it had been raining at the airport and the plane had to wait until it was safe for them to land. When it did, the two of them had hurried to the car rental service counter to get any car available. The taller man had decided to rent a high speed Sedan and had breached every law possible to get them both to the Parliament building.

“We could call to give them excuse for our lateness. Safety comes first”.

“Yeah, yeah”, Murasakibara dug his ears while Mitobe took out the folder from his briefcase. It was a summarized copy of all the points to be discussed.

When they entered the meeting room, the chairmen of every government section were already waiting for their arrival, despite having arrived five minutes earlier. Their boss, Akashi Yamato were sitting next to the prime minister. Everyone flipped open their own printed copy of the topics regardless whether they could fathom the items or not.

Sharp at 3.00 o’clock, the two men greeted everyone in the room to start off their presentation.

“Fellow honorable members of the council panels, thank you for coming to this presentation. We are going to talk about the items we agreed upon in GLASS, as well as other items that has been delivered in the US conference”, said Mitobe.

“Before we start our discussion, we would like to mention how we greatly appreciate your contribution, Mitobe and Murasakibara. We will make sure your example will be followed by other government officers. Your story will inspire them”, said the prime minister.

It meant there would be an article about them in the near future.

“Thank you, sir”, Murasakibara nodded his head respectfully.

“Please turn to the first page...” Murasakibara and Mitobe took turn to explain every point taken. They talked about the new regulation that would be implemented in three months from the date – one that was for curbing financial system issues. The new regulation stated that every banks in GLASS countries must have a proper alerting and monetary reporting of their system and they were obligated to implement anti - financial laundering system. There was a stress in the elaboration that the implementation would incur growth in the System Business sector, mainly positive for the software industry as well as security.

There was also a talk about revising cyber framework for every government database to prevent outside individuals from getting their hands on database data. It hadn’t been discussed how to increase data security but the GLASS panels acknowledged the importance of data security in today’s technology driven structure.

“GLASS panels advocate all its members to strengthen their cyber technology defense. Information can lead to war if leaked”, Murasakibara ended the presentation that had had him standing for two hours. Since he had been sitting for hours in the plane, he welcomed the chance to have his legs straightened but being surrounded by old men was not something pleasing for him.

The prime minister dismissed them from the meeting room to start the next part of the meeting. The two officers thanked them for the opportunity to attend GLASS conference and left. They were not needed in the decision making session and sticking around would give no meaning to them. Furthermore, Akashi Yamato was well updated throughout the conference weeks. Murasakibara and Mitobe was only patching any bits of missing information and to clear any misunderstanding.

Murasakibara hopped into the rented Sedan, lowering the window when he saw Mitobe made no effort to climb into the passenger seat. “Senpai, you’re not getting on?” he asked.

“I’d be taking the train”, Mitobe answered. The ride just now had made him doubted Murasakibara’s driving judgement.

“In that case, I’ll be heading home first”, said the giant man. Mitobe watched the car left the driveway in neck breaking speed. He was glad he decided to use the train instead.

By the time Mitobe arrived at the station near his home, the wind was blowing strongly. The smell of rain was heavy and it was almost dinner time. While he was contemplating of making a run for it, he knew what an impossible feat it would be. Despite the station being the closest, he would still have to walk quite a stretch before arriving at his house.

He decided to wait for the rain to ease off when the drizzling prickled on his face. Turned out that it was a heavy one that wouldn’t let off until god knows when.

Mitobe picked up a few piece of croissants his daughters loved to eat at the French bakery in the station. He also bought himself a warm cup of tea. Then he proceeded to wait outside of the bakery while enjoying his tea. There weren’t that many people at the train station by the time an hour passed. He was looking out at the bus stand when he saw a semblance of man with an umbrella walking towards him with a hand in his pocket. The red umbrella tilted now and then when the wind blew but the man’s face was still hooded by the PVC surface.

When the man stopped in front of him and flashed him a grin, Mitobe knew there was a reason why all these years, he was still hooked.

“Hey Mitobe”, said the other, “I’ve come to pick you up”.

“Thank you, Koganei”.

\---An unfinished business ---

Murasakibara turned the key and let himself inside what Himuro had dubbed as their love nest. It had been a while since he was home. Work had come in between them and he was glad to finally have his break. Himuro was on shift today and he had left quite a while ago for his bartending job.

After emptying his dirty laundry inside the washing machine, he kept the empty luggage in the store room. He checked the fridge and sure enough, his lover had stashed one of the level with newly baked muffins. He grabbed a muffin and popped it inside a microwave. While waiting for it to warm up, he scrolled down his contact book and called his beloved.

“Atsushi, you’re back”, Himuro said the moment he answered the call. “I’m sorry I wasn’t there to welcome you home”.

“It’s okay. I understand you’re working right now. I saw the muffin in the fridge and take some for myself”.

“Eat as much as you like, okay?” Himuro said. The taller male quirked an eyebrow at the out of place remark. For as long as he knew the other, Himuro never allowed him to have more than three pieces of muffin each time. Something about not wanting him to have pot-belly.

“You’re not going to be mad if I have more than three?” he quizzed.

“You have just returned. Consider it as treat”.

“Heh... the last time I went to Africa for the social worker service, and that was a longer trip than this US trip, you still won’t let me have more than three. It’s weird”.

“Do whatever that please you, Atsushi. I’m hanging up or the customer will be angry”.

Murasakibara clutched the phone in his grip. His lover was acting weird and who was he not to harbour the slightest doubt? The dinging of the microwave had him distracted. Taking out the muffin from the microwave, he entertained with all the possibilities that could have happened during his travel. As it ran through his head, the muffin tasted bitter in his mouth to the point he stopped savouring it.

“What’s going on here? Why is he acting weird? Now is not the time to be out of character!” the purple head bent the teaspoon. He would get an earful from the other later but he had other reasons to worry about than the teaspoon.

He tossed the bent metal in a nearby dustbin, shoving the half eaten muffin into the fridge. Walking around the house, his eyes searched for any clues that could help him with uncovering his lover weird behaviour.

He spotted a strand of hair on the carpet. Bending down, he picked the strand and held it up for observation.

“Black hair.... could it be?” his mind drifted to the only other person with black hair (although there were many others).

“Takao!” he grunted and started dialing Midorima’s number. He didn’t even wait for the greeting; all he wanted to do was pinned the accusation on a certain someone.

“Mido-chin, you should keep watch of your little birdie!”

“Huh? What the hell is going on?” Midorima sounded surprised.

“Your birdie is cheating on you! With my boyfriend!”

“Hold on... Takao is?”

“I found his hair in my house. That’s enough evidence”.

“Hair? Have you make sure that the hair belongs to Takao? I mean... couldn’t it have been Himuro’s?”

“Muro-chin doesn’t shed hair! He’s not at that age yet!”

“It’s a possibility, Murasakibara. You can’t overlook the fact that he might be going bald”.

“Do not start”.

“What? You’re not going to love him as much if he is hairless?”

“I never said that. Don’t give me that kind of mental image!”

“Well, I can prescribe hair tonic if you’d-”Murasakibara ended the call begrudgingly. He pulled a stool nearby and sat on it, his hand propping his chin as he continued to think. What could have caused Himuro to act strangely? Was he hiding something from Murasakibara?

His thumb accidentally landed on the call button. “Aomine’s Residence”, he heard Aomine’s voice blaring out from the speaker.

Deciding to answer, he pressed the phone next to his ears. “Ah, Mine-chin?”

“Murasakibara? That’s rare... What’s up, man?”

“Nothing...” he drawled hesitantly.

“Doesn’t sound like nothing to me. You want some advice or something?”

“... Mine-chin, how often does Kise-chin cheats on you?”

“Kise? Huh... if you factor in all his gigs, he cheats pretty often but I’m used to it. Why are you asking this?”

“How can you be used to it? Aren’t you his man?”

“... Well, it’s work related. Not something I can do about it, can I?”

“You have no balls, Mine-chin. No balls!”

“Me? I have plenty of balls. Anyway, why are you picking a fight with me?” he could imagine Aomine’s twitching veins. Despite the humor, his worry was still bugging him.

“I think Muro-chin cheated on me”.

“What makes you think that?”

“He’s acting weird. And I found a strand of black hair in the living room”.

“How is he acting weird?”

“He let me have more than three muffins”.

Aomine snorted like a horse. “Isn’t that a good thing? And that black hair could’ve been his, could it?”

“It could’ve been others and no, he never let me have more than three”.

“And then you narrow down the reason to cheating? That’s not enough evidence to lead you to that point of conclusion”.

“How would you know?”

“The same for you isn’t it? You’re thinking too much”.

“You think so?”

“Stop worrying. It’s probably nothing. Anything else?”

“No, just that”. The supposed short call became an hour of chatting when he listened to Aomine’s complains about his work and love life. Kise had been giving him cold shoulder when he accidentally ate his pudding and they were far from reconciling. Murasakibara wanted to give the other a pat on his back; he could understand the misery of being denied any physical contacts. He cringed when he thought about the teaspoon. Already lamenting, the purple head finally said his goodbye.

Feeling tired, he dragged his feet into their bedroom. Mindlessly with the intention to get ready to sleep, he rummaged through the medicine cabinet for a new tube of toothpaste and that was when he noticed the painkiller medicine missing two rows instead of one. Curiously, he took it out and studied it closely.

“Hm... had Tatsuya been drinking? Twice?” he mumbled. It was probably nothing to worry about since being a bartender meant his lover was probably dragged into the flow and had a glass or two himself but he couldn’t deny a part of him that was grating his mind with irrational thoughts.

“If I keep up with this jealousy, he will hate me”, he said it out loud to let himself understand that excessive control didn’t necessarily become a good thing.

Tatsuya, just like him, needed some space to breathe – the thought stayed with him until he finished getting ready to bed. When sleep finally ruled over his body, the clock was inching another step closer to midnight.

_Creak..._

\--- An unfinished business ---

The dancing glow of the disco ball fueled the hype of the dancers. There had been a bar fight that night, one that many employees could do without. As much as it was entertaining, the aftermath would be billed to the employees’ pay. Seeing how all the bartenders, waiters and bouncers didn’t make that much in the first place, having the pay cut would surely hurt their wallet.

Tatsuya watched the bouncer escorting the involved men outside. One of them had a slit on his lips and he was obnoxiously stating how he wasn’t the one to start the fight. It didn’t matter what his defense was; UTOPIA wouldn’t welcome customers that would cause havoc to the otherwise pleasurable atmosphere.

Tatsuya carried on with his duty, leaving the foregoing thoughts of his lover’s return. While the flow of the bar was slow, he used the chance to dry up the cocktail and wine glasses. The glass almost slipped from his hand when his phone buzzed in his pocket. Putting down the glass, he moved himself away from the blaring music to answer the phone after looking at the caller ID.

“Atsushi, you’re back. I’m sorry I wasn’t there to welcome you home”, he greeted, though with strained voice.

“It’s okay. I understand you’re working right now. I saw the muffin in the fridge and take some for myself”, answered Murasakibara. Himuro bit his lips – already missing the presence of his lover. Despite all that, what bit him more was the regret he couldn’t erase. One that would plague him for eternity.

“Eat as much as you like, okay?” Himuro said guiltily. Muffins won’t fix the situation but it was the least he could allow to make him feel slightly better.

“You’re not going to be mad if I have more than three?” Murasakibara suddenly blurted in worried tone.

Sensing where this could go wrong, he tried to find plausible explanation. “You have just returned. Consider it as treat”.

“Heh... the last time I went to Africa for the social worker service, and that was a longer trip than this US trip, you still won’t let me have more than three. It’s weird”.

Tatsuya clasped his hand around his mouth. What was he going to say to that? He didn’t know that his lover could be extremely sharp; then again, a diplomatic career would require more than just being tall and daunting.

Lose of words led him to making defensive statement. His shoulders made closer, he said, “Do whatever that please you, Atsushi. I’m hanging up or the customer will be angry”. The customer was an excuse; hardly anyone was at the bar asking for drinks when the dance floor was pack with exciting things but he must put a stop to the conversation or he would blurt out his mistake. The thought of Murasakibara leaving him filled him with fear and a lot of what ifs were causing tempest in his head.

Through the night, he lose count the number of glasses that had been dropped to the floor and shattered. His manager, seeing how his best was not fit for work, ordered him to go back early. He was right about one thing; Tatsuya needed to clear his head and picked up the pace back from there after he sorted his problem out.

It was close to midnight when he arrived home. The sound of the door filled the quiet apartment, giving an eerie feels to an otherwise comfortable home. He left his shoes at the front door, tucking them on the shoe rack. The first thing he did was to head directly to the kitchen. Opening the fridge, Tatsuya was surprised to find a half-eaten muffin sitting in the storage compartment, something that Murasakibara never did no matter how angry he was with Tatsuya. He shut it, putting a wall between himself and the sight.

His back slid against the fridge door and in the dark, he let himself wallowed in another distressing playback of his guilt. Once again, he was swept into an emotional ride he had kept away since the day Kagami’s visit, one that brought a silent tear on his cheek.

Tatsuya rarely made mistakes in whatever he chose to do and cherish. He built the castle around him with the one he loved, all dashing and tranquil. His home here didn’t have much fight in it. Whenever he looked forward, there was only the picture of the two of them, always.

He believed his love... their love would last to an eternity.

Flourishing with blossoms. Blessed with bright light.

Wherever they went to, they would always be together.

He had hoped that nothing bad would conjure.

What a place he was in right now! What could’ve been a cozy life was turned upside down by a mistake. One that he had no control over. For the first time, he could see the crack forming on the castle’s wall. It was small now but it would become severe.

Severe enough to break them apart.

He couldn’t leave; he was afraid to lose the biggest part of him and yet he couldn’t speak. If he could turn back time once again, he would stop himself from drinking, from bringing his brother inside his apartment. And yet, the card was already played. He lost the Ace and could only face the consequences.

His whole body tremored; not a single moan escaping his tight lip. The guilt that was eating him hindered Tatsuya from going to bed, to where his lover was sleeping.

Instead, he lied down on his side and cradled his arms around his knees, falling asleep in his tears on the hard, cold kitchen floor.


	13. PART 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pressing down the true desire, we just move with it. Leaving us with various feeling when it breaks us apart.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi, thanks for the nice reviews. Really appreciate it well. This chapter will end the last chapter's scene (not the whole drama) and will focus s bit on Nijimura.

Late at night, a growling stomach woke a sleeping man up from his dream. With his body facing the inner side of the bed, Murasakibara scowled at the empty side of the bed. He glanced at the digital alarm on the side table. It was three o’clock and he was expecting his lover here in bed with him.

Feeling bitter, he searched for Himuro in the living room and when he couldn’t find him there, he became worried.

“Tatsuya?” he called his lover’s name but there was no response. Murasakibara hurriedly grabbed his phone in the bedroom and called him. He dropped the call once he heard Himuro’s ringtone blaring outside somewhere in the house.

He entered the kitchen and was surprised to see Himuro curled up on the kitchen’s floor. The taller man crouched next to his lover and ran his thumb on Himuro’s cheek. He could feel the wetness on the other’s skin and it left him confused. Did he do something wrong to cause Himuro sadness? He racked his brain for any deeds that may have triggered it but couldn’t find anything.

Carefully, he scooped Himuro and carried him inside their bedroom. Whether he should question Himuro about this or just left it hanging probed his mind but he would make the decision when the time was right.

His stomach growled again but he ignored it and secured his arm around his lover after lying next to him.

“I love you”, he whispered, nuzzling in the black strands intimately.

He ignored that part of him that was breaking.

*

Nijimura plugged the earpiece and from time to time, he spanned the binoculars across the area diligently. After his daring one man show penetrating Kaito Mafia’s headquarter, the security around the area had been tightened up a notch, making it difficult for them to find a weak spot.

Luckily, Imayoshi had an eye for these things called loopholes and took notice that lunch time was always the least guarded time. It also helped to know that being a mafia guard didn’t mean you were paid well at all and thus, they had bribed the rickshaw vendor to move his stall a bit further than usual.

The moment he saw a bunch of guards leaving their post, he climbed down from his hiding place and had the tranquilizer out. He waited until the guards were out of sight before walking into the enormous building, lowering himself out of view and ducking behind the cars for cover whenever he saw shadows. He walked around the cars towards the entrance and climbed up a tree that was conveniently planted next to a balcony and was just in time to be out of sight of two guards.

He waited until they were gone before unmuting his speaker. “I’m in. Honestly, it was easier to waddle inside last time than now”.

“The same trick won’t work twice and with this amount of security? It’ easier to be the ninja than being a police with warrant”.

“Why can’t we just barge in again?”

“Because that’d get both of us killed. Anyway, can you take a look at what type of door that is?”

Nijimura looked from behind the binoculars and zoomed in. The handle didn’t look as if it had automated security.

“I think it’s just a normal door”, he guessed from the latch shape but his main concern was the security camera strictly focusing at the entrance. “Well, it’s guarded by a camera”.

“Remember that film I gave you in the car? Those are special film that can burn the background image to hide any physical presence.”

Nijimura pulled the film out. “Right... let me guess. You want me to stick this on the lens”.

“Give yourself a pat for the right guess you gave me”.

“Screw you, Imayoshi”, Nijimura flipped the bird at his own spy camera to let him know how he absolutely hated the spectacled man right now. “Why can’t you just jammed the camera with your techie knowledge?”

“That’s too much work”.

He almost let a couple of films slipped when he didn’t realized that it had not been just _a_ film. “How many of these do you put in here?”

“Stick it on every camera lens in your way and stay out of the lens for five seconds”.

“You just want to put me in a difficult situation, don’t you?”

“Don’t you love the challenge?”

Nijimura moved carefully towards the edge of the branch. Counting to three, he leaped onto the marbled railing side and scaled to the side out of the camera’s range. He pulled himself upward and pressed himself against the wall. Slowly approaching, he chewed a piece of gum and pat a good amount on the film. The black haired man (that hair was hidden by the green beanies) stretched his arms far enough to reach the lens and stuck the film. He waited for five seconds before proceeding to test the lock. Luckily for him, the door was carelessly being left open.

“Some guards they are”, he snorted, closing the door behind him. The long hallway had little place to hide except for the drapes. He waited for a while behind the curtain until two janitors walked pass him. Seeing his chance, Nijimura stalked behind the two and knocked the wind out of them. He proceeded to hide the bodies and exchanged his clothes for the janitor’s uniforms.

“I’m making this easier for myself”, he said to the intercom as he pushed the trolley away from the room where he hid the bodies.

“It’s your call. Do whatever you like. Oh and by the way, the janitors are Spanish”.

“You’re lying!”

“Nope. Do your best, Nijimura-san”.

He stopped talking when two Japanese women trotted out from one of the door. The sexy glasses and pencil skirts had almost had him whistling. Even if he was wearing janitor’s clothes, he just couldn’t let his charm died with it. He gave himself a little straightening and pulled his belt up.

“La-”

“Spanish”, Imayoshi reminded.

“Senorita, como estas?”

“They can speak broken Japanese, haha”, Imayoshi laughed in his ear. Momentarily, he wished that Imayoshi would suffer one day from making a joke out of him.

“Ramon? You look a little different today”, said one of the ladies who was slightly taller than the other.

“Really? Guapo in Spanish, senorita”.

“Whatever, Ramon. We’re done with your flirting so please clean up the boss’ office before he comes back tomorrow”, replied the other lady.

“Bella Senorita, okay!”

“Do you even know where the boss office is, dumbass?” asked the shorter one rudely.

“No, senorita. I don’t know”.

“Why do we hire Spanish janitors again?” she let out a frustrated sigh and rolled her eyes.

“Because they can’t read Kanji”, said the taller one.

“Right. Straight down this hallway, the last room”.

“Bella Senorita, okay!” and he watched them leave together with his pride.

“I’ll kill you once this is over!”

“Aww, Ramon. Where did your flirtatious act go?”

“Fierro”, he hissed at the man behind the speaker who made a knowing sound like he understood what Nijimura meant. The man clad in janitor’s uniform pushed the cleaning trolley to where he had been instructed to go. Once he was at the end of the hallway, he fumbled with the doorknob, stepped inside the room and locked the door behind him.

“I’m in”.

“Glad that you make it without looking so suspicious”.

He whistled at the huge library he was in. This wasn’t the room he had broken in a while ago. That room must have been the decoy room where he would meet his associates or clienteles. Nijimura walked along the shelves, pulling out a file and leafing it over. Whatever he was holding, they contained mass information the authorities were drooling for.

“Looks like I’ve entered the place where he kept his stuffs”, said Nijimura.

“We’re here for the information about the link between the finance minister and this group”.

“In this kind of place? That’d take me a whole day... hold on a minute”, Nijimura paused when he saw a personal desktop in the middle of the room.

“In this day and age? No one could be bothered to look at hard copies. And he must have had the documents stored inside the desktop”, the black haired male ran his fingers on the keyboards. The screen was not locked with password, as if he believed no one would ever find this den.

Nijimura hooked the USB drive he had brought along. “I’d be stupid to even try searching this thing one by one”.

“Take only the important ones”.

“Understood, boss”.

Nijimura clicked on the documents and began reading on them. There were a long list of crimes in each of the documents, listings of transactions paid by the benefactors of the mafia group to carry out some cleaning or trafficking duties. He selected carefully which files to copy and while snooping around the directories, he couldn’t helped but to notice an oddly named folder. The black head dove into the folder without a second thought and was slightly curious to see the graphic extensions. He clicked on the picture to open it using the image software and was deterred by the images he was seeing.

“Fucking hell, look at this shit, Imayoshi!” he whispery shouted at the obvious image of a child who had had his arm severed and was taken a picture of.

“I’m going to hurl! Oi, close it!” but Nijimura wasn’t listening. He continued to look at the brutality being done on every children that were taken a picture of. Each of the picture taken only put him more on edge. The Kaito mafia seemed to gain sick pleasure from watching the children tormented.

He was about to end the trail of the gruesome graphics when another picture was displayed on the screen. Nijimura would have kept it all in and would try to forget about the pictures once he got out of the room for the sake of his mission but when he saw the last image, he stood up so abruptly that he knocked the chair over.

He walked forward determined to see only one color to be on the wall and would not stop until he got what he wanted.

He was going to paint the wall red.

*

“Stop it, Nijimura-san! This is not a part of the operation!” Imayoshi’s voice droned in his ears in the countless of times he had been shouting in Nijimura’s earpiece.

However, the man ceased to listen to any rational talk. All he wanted as of now was to see some bloodbath. His fingers wrapped closely and tightened around the fragile neck of the woman, the shorter one he had encountered earlier- the sound of her pained moan vibrating against his palm was not enough to put out the rage he was feeling. The black of her pupils rolled behind her eyelids, her lips scrunched and curled as she tried to take in as much air as she could and he tightened further, aiming to kill her by choking.

“Tell me where your leader is!” growled Nijimura like a savage tiger.

“C-can’t breathe”, she managed to say between her gasps. It was a fight for air – the man towering above her was overpowering.

“Do you not _hear_ me?”

“H-He’s coming b-back t-tomorrow”, she struggled to express it word by word and at the same time trying to peel the fingers away. Nijimura removed his hand and dropped her to the ground. He turned his back and examined the bodies lying around him. They were injured but not dead.

 _Yet_ , he reminded himself.

The woman breathed hard and rubbed her neck. “You won’t get away with this!” she challenged and sneered at him hatefully. It sounded so smug that Nijimura laughed for a while, his voice eerily echoed in the hallway.

“ _I_ won’t get away with this? Then you must have not known who I am”, a grin curled up on his face. For a moment there, she saw a flash of mirth dancing in the other’s eyes. She couldn’t help but to shake from the menacing look he had.

“Nijimura-san, this is against our operative rule!” once again, Imayoshi shouted at him.

Rules? Who cares about that?

“FUCK RULE!” and just like that, he was armed with two pairs of soldiers’ knives he always carried with him and the first person to receive a cutthroat was the lady who dared to defy him.

“I’ll show you nightmare!” he shouted as the body flopped lifelessly to the ground. He clenched his fists as his skin tingled with a familiar sensation he had forgotten long ago.

“I’ll show _everyone_ what nightmare is”, he repeated in a bloodthirsty tone, basking himself with a memory he had thought would never resurfaced.

_He was back in the battlefield and around him, the sand whirled in the air and waved beneath his feet. There wasn’t much to see in a place that had been demolished by fire power. His boot stomped the sandy ground and his tracks were erased by the wind. Behind him were his fellow operative mates and all were ready to shoot._

_Terrorist. He was there to eliminate the sign of danger to the other governments. This wasn’t his first battleground but he had never been to somewhere so deserted that not even a single plant would want to grow on the dry land._

_He signed to them to head to the demilitarized zone that should not be far from where they have landed. What they were not aware was behind all these ruins of buildings, they were being watched. The sandstorm was camouflaging any other presence. Not to mention, the radar was not picking up very well in the heat._

_A few seconds later after the helicopter left them, they were ambushed by the terrorist group. They were armed and was wearing soldier’s uniforms that could be mistaken as the British Army except they had bloodstain on them. Compared to their group, the terrorist had outnumbered them. There was little hope for them to win the battle._

_Nijimura raised his guns to defend his party but one by one they had fallen until there was only him. The survival instinct scratched on the surface of his mind, forcing him to push out of danger by himself. When he was dominating them with his ferocity, suddenly the fear turned into something else: pleasure. He bathed in more blood, unable to tell between friend and foe. Only when he came to, when his sanity returned, he found himself lying on top of a pile of corpse inside the demilitarized zone._

_All he could remember was the feral sense of accomplishment._

_The sandy world had been painted red._

_Coming back to the base had been a challenge. He was brought to court and was sentenced to stay behind the bars for three years and for his noble service, he would not be given death parole. Three years and he met a lot of anarchists and killers. He never thought he could return back to normal so he exchanged knowledge to make himself better._

_He improved in stealth, weapon handling and learned murdering techniques he had never known before. Three years and then he was out of the prison._

_But when he stepped outside, he saw the first sign of spring._

_That was when he knew he had to return home to be a better man._

And look where his homeland had brought him back to! He wanted to laugh as he felt the sensation to kill seeped within him. As he untangled the nerves, bones and flesh with his knives, he let the freedom washed him.

Here he was free to commit brutality. He was losing control.

And all because he let the rage took over him.

“I am a monster”, he whispered almost proudly, already forgetting why he was creating this messy arena.

A stream of light fell into the redness, bringing moving shadows with it. There was only a sound command after the entry; he was at gunpoint.

“HANDS IN THE AIR!” one of the shadow that walked in barked.

More to kill. They had walked into a monster’s den. He stretched his muscle and without hesitation, lunged himself in a graceful movement with both knives ready to give everyone a taste of death. He sent one toppling on his back but the other managed to dodge before the knives got to him. Two others came forward as a backup and managed to restrain his arms. He was about to flip them both when another man rushed forward.

The man packed a punch on his jaw. He could hear them dislocating.

No one could stay up after being punched the living daylight out of you. Unless you had a metal skin.

In this case, Nijimura was also not an exception.

*

Aomine looked at his phone screen occasionally, hoping that Kise would finally talk to him. They hadn’t been talking for three days and he was starting to miss the bright, goofy smiles of his lover. Kise wouldn’t even look him in the eyes; at breakfast, he would be sitting at the isolation sofa with his cereal and he cursed himself for agreeing to Kise about having the corner where it was strictly a no-touching zone. When he came back, he would find a futon readily available on the floor and their bedroom door locked. It repeated for three days and he was starting to be out of his mind.

While he was busy flipping between the phone screens, Mayuzumi Chihiro returned from his patrol with a box of doughnut and two venti sized coffee. He had a book in his hand that had been read more than half and it was a thick, small print book too. He remembered the older man telling him how he just bought the book that morning. It made Aomine wondered how exactly Mayuzumi patrolled around the town without paying attention to the road or the civillians.

“Looking solemn as usual”, the other stated flatly.

“Why aren’t you a writer yet?” Aomine grumbled.

“My love for reading doesn’t make me a good author”.

“Could’ve fooled me”, the tanned man picked his favourite doughnut and hummed at the delicious bite. Mayuzumi’s eyes never left the phone in Aomine’s grasp.

“He’s still not talking to you?” he asked, pointing at the other’s dilemma.

“He should be by now. It’s just a ridiculous pudding mistake. Fucking unnamed pudding was there when I was hungry”.  

“You should’ve asked before taking it”, Mayuzumi offered a piece of his mind.

“How am I supposed to know that the pudding is _exclusively_ for him? He was the one who bought the grocery so I assumed that everything in the fridge I can take”, Aomine lamented. True that he listened to everybody’s dilemma but when it came to his own problem, he found comfort talking about it to his senior.

“I think you should apologize”, Mayuzumi said between his own doughnut bites.

“... Why should I? He didn’t tell me it was his”.

“Ten years olds”, the older man smirked when Aomine glared at him. His junior definitely took the bait and for that, he was satisfied. Plus, having someone moping around him while he was supposed to be doing his work drove his battery low.

“Fine! I will tell him I am sorry once I got back home”.

“Here’s another doughnut for you”.

“Thanks”.

They were falling into their usual routine; Aomine twirling his pen while looking bored and Mayuzumi occupying the time with reading, when the chief of the department marched in with a gun holster buckled around his waist.

“Team”, the man glowered his order, “get ready. We are going out now! Our subject is a rampaging criminal. Equip yourself with your guns and vest”.

The office that once lacked of energy moved into motion. Aomine took out his holster belt and buckled it around his own waist while Mayuzumi did the same. He strapped on the bulletproof vest after taking off his uniform jacket, tucking in his undershirt neatly to make sure it didn’t restrict his movement during the operation. Then he put his uniform jacket back on.

“Alright, team! Gather around so that I can tell you numbskulls what to expect!”

Everyone in the room encircled around the chief.

“We have a rampaging criminal”, he stated, “but he is an important criminal who is an employee of a private operative body. We are supposed to detain him, not kill him. His disciplinary sentence is beyond our scope and therefore, not under any circumstance are you allowed to kill him”.

He proceeded to brief them the strategy: five of the team members went in, one would set himself as a distraction, another one would keep the criminal at gunpoint and the other two would restrain the criminal.

“Be quick and catch him off guard. Aomine”, the chief turned to him.

“What?” he cocked a questioning eyebrow at the man.

“Shut him down when you see the chance”.

“I thought you said not to kill him”.

“Yes, you can’t kill him. So use a method that doesn’t kill him”.

“Oh. Alright, chief”.

The old man patted his shoulder. “Good. Now, head along with the others”.

“Yes, sir”, he saluted the chief and followed Mayuzumi who had been waiting for him at the doorway.

Finally, he was getting some action. Aomine couldn’t help but smirked excitedly.

 


	14. Chapter 14

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A start of something new is in the air....  
> Will any of them be the wiser?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the late update I got a bit too busy, huhu. :) This one is a little short but I will try my best to get the next one longer.

“I couldn’t believe it!” the tanned man uttered angrily. He was still baffled – who wouldn’t when the man you had just arrested was someone you used to dunk scores with together. Suddenly the memories wilted to a very twisted perspective. Where was the respectable man he had known? Looked up to?

Where had he gone to?

“Hey, don’t do anything rash”, Mayuzumi commented glaringly. He had seen Aomine getting emotional a few times in his police career. Their line of job sometimes made them sentimental. It couldn’t be helped since their hands were already stained beyond repair.

Although, he could never truly understand the feeling of being betrayed. A part of him wondered which was it that got his colleague all riled up. Was it the memory that was betrayed or was it the respect Aomine had?

Either way didn’t matter.

“How did he turn out to become that?” whispered Aomine defeatedly.

“Can I ask who is he to you?” Mayuzumi decided that it would be best for him to at least know some background story of the man in captive.

“He is... he is my senpai in middle school. He was the captain for Teiko’s basketball team before Akashi”.

“Basketball team captain, huh? Now I can understand where your frustration is coming from”.

“To meet him back in this circumstance... I’d never imagine this will happen”.

“Don’t make me laugh”, Mayuzumi slammed down his book and looked straight into Aomine’s eyes, “how many years has it been since you saw him? Every person on earth will have to make a choice of where to go to. You must understand that too”.

“Even so...”

“I don’t think you can think straight right now. Go home. I’ll talk to the chief that you'd gone home because you’re not feeling well”.

Aomine sighed and massaged his temple. Mayuzumi may have spoken about it harshly but he had a concrete point. Everyone made a choice and Nijimura had taken committing massacre as his choice. If he were to stay in the office any longer, he would walk right into the interrogation room to punch Nijimura and to demand answers. He picked up his belongings and quietly left the police station.

It was after all the best course of action.

*

There was something about Haizaki’s wardrobe that amused Furihata to no end. He counted the days he had been staying in Haizaki’s apartment- roughly about a month now but not once had he seen Haizaki wearing anything else besides his long sleeves t-shirts. When he first noticed it, he discarded it as Haizaki being thoughtful of him as his housemate but during his turn to do the laundry, he started to notice the lack of sleeveless or short sleeves and he knew for certain that Haizaki didn’t sleep without his shirt on from Furihata’s daily wakeup call (he became a convenient alarm clock shortly after he moved-in).

There was one time he did bring the topic out. It was a Sunday morning and they were both at the dining table having toast and jams for breakfast. Before he could stop himself, the curiosity got the better of him and he questioned:

“Why do you only wear long sleeves?”

The silverette almost choked on his sandwich- he was wolfing on one- and coughed at the innocent question.

“Why are you asking me that?” Haizaki asked back.

“Well... you don’t seem to wear anything else besides long sleeves. Are you hiding the rest of it or something?”

Haizaki averted his eyes. He didn’t seem comfortable with the question at all. Furihata, being the considerate person he was, realized that his question was probably scratching not on the surface but somewhere deeper. He decided to just drop the whole conversation altogether.

“You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to”, said Furihata to ease Haizaki’s worry.

“It’s not that I don’t want to answer it”, retorted the other, “it’s just that, I don’t like bringing it up”.

“Same difference”, the brunet just slapped a good amount of jam on his own toast, “I can understand where you’re coming from”.

Instead of continuing with the conversation, he changed the topic by asking the silverette if he had any other plan that day since he needed someone to haul off grocery for the week. Haizaki easily agreed to the plan. They ended up crashing at Kasamatsu’s place when the man called the brunet in the middle of the shopping trip and asked them if they were doing anything for dinner.

He hadn’t asked Haizaki again after that Sunday (about two weeks ago). Furihata dismissed the thought since he had more pressing matter to think about; namely the message he had received from one Akashi Seijuurou an hour prior to his musing.

 _I will pick you up at your apartment in an hour. Dress appropriately-_ was his command that came in the form of a text message.

“Dress appropriately”, he made a mocking expression at the mirror in front of him. He had put on a black sweater jacket and green jeans. He just hoped that whatever he was wearing was appropriate enough for Akashi. They were just going to see Midorima for the appointment so what was the need to wear nicely?

Haizaki walked past him with a toothbrush in his mouth. He blinked a couple of times and asked him a question but not without creating a mess of bubbling toothpaste while being incoherent. The silverette took out the toothbrush after finding it difficult to articulate words with one and asked again.

“You’re going out?”

Again with the long sleeves, Furihata noted. Someday he would gouge the answer out of Haizaki. He made a promise to himself.

“Um... something like that”.

Just in time, the doorbell rang.

“I’ll get it”, Haizaki rushed to the door before Furihata could stop him. Once he opened the door, Haizaki slammed the door back to a shut again. He turned his head at the brunet who was looking at Haizaki like he had lost his mind.

“What’s he doing here?” Haizaki hissed-whispered.

“Um... I’m going out with him”, said Furihata innocently.

“You’re dating him?” Haizaki could swear he could hear the knocking sound coming from the hell’s gate. Perhaps, it was because he was actually hearing the knocking sound on the door.

“No! Why are you thinking that? He’s just picking me up so I could go to my appointment!”

“Appointment?”

Furihata deadpanned, “Don’t ask. It’s a long story”.

“So... should I open the door?”

Furihata nodded warily. The moment the door revealed the red head, Furihata already felt like he was under dressed for the occasion. Even the cast was taken off - Akashi healed extremely fast from his injury, judging from how he was moving his healed hand recklessly.

“You’re not dressing enough layers”, said Akashi who seemed to have put on himself knitted sweater with a jacket in his arm.

“We’re just going to see Midorima-san”, protested Furihata lightly.

“Ah, it’s quite alright. I must have misinformed you one way or another but you can borrow what’s mine later”.

Haizaki stuck the toothbrush back into his mouth. Then he nudged Furihata and gave him the eye that said, ‘we’ll have to talk about this later’.

“It’s been a while, Haizaki-san”, Akashi greeted. The silverette just nodded lightly and shoved Furihata out of the doorway. He waved at the brunet and locked the door after himself, leaving the awkwardness hanging in the air after a soft click.

“Shall we get going?” Akashi offered his hand.

“Um... I’m not a girl you know. So, you don’t have to do the courtesy thing”.

“I am aware of your gender. You seem to make it a point to point out the obvious”.

“And well, you seem to make it a point to ignore the obvious”, Furihata huffed and walked ahead of Akashi. The red head blinked at the action... did he trip on a burning ground because he was feeling a little annoyed on what he considered a good day?

“I don’t understand where your irritation is coming from”, the red head countered back, igniting his engine while waiting for Furihata to be seated.

“Uhuh”, the brunet shook his head as he buckled the seatbelt in the passenger side of Akashi’s Audi.

“Did I do something wrong?” asked Akashi again.

“Nothing”.

“Then why are you acting like... like this?”

“No comment”.

Furihata noticed how Akashi’s grip seemed to tighten around the steering wheel. Any futher, he would sure leave fingerprint marks on the fine leather. The brunet propped his chin against the door, succumbing to the fact that it was Midorima’s ploy that brought Akashi to his doorstep. The red head was only being nice and he shouldn’t be angry at him.

“Nothing, okay? Don’t worry about it”.

“Is it unpleasant to be with me?” asked Akashi softly.

The question did cause his face to heat up... not of anger but something equally uncomfortable.

“It’s not that unpleasant... not you. You’re not the problem here”.

“So, if I am not the problem, what’s troubling you?”

‘Fucking smooth, Akashi-sama!’ Furihata cursed in his mind. Of course it would come back to the same point... Akashi seemed to be talented at maneuvering the spotlight back to him. He looked out of the window, hoping to see something that could become a topic of conversation.

“Oh, look. An ice cream vendor. I haven’t seen him for a while now!” he squeaked when he saw the retired old man who was often seen selling ice cream on the street they were passing right then.

“Do you want me to buy you a sundae?” asked the red head. He was playing along, Furihata could tell, if the smirk on Akashi’s face was not an indication.

“I’d love too... I guess. The ice cream is homemade... I recommend the mint flavour”, the brunet quickly answered without missing a beat.

“Alright...” Akashi parked the car and got off it. He popped a few coins to buy the parking ticket before heading to where the vendor was. There was a bit of a queue but he had some time to spare. Else, he could’ve just contacted Shintarou to move Furihata’s slot a little later.

The brunet on the other hand watched Akashi squeezed himself in the long line. The vendor was pretty popular and the queue was to be expected. He had never seen Akashi buying anything like a normal human being... For the red head to even willingly cater to his whimsical request... Furihata didn’t know what he should think of it as.

Furthermore, the whimsical request was made out of purpose – to stop Akashi from asking any further.

“What’s with him and his sudden interest in me?” the brunet banged his forehead against the dashboard lightly. It was still an Audi he couldn’t afford so he had to control the force or he would have to pay the repair price.

Furihata moaned at the fate he was currently in. Here he was in a sleek car with a gorgeous to a fault businessman who not only was extremely well off but also very, very influential. Any girl would kill to be in his position. He didn’t quite understand why Akashi would go all out taking him for a drive... albeit it was with a purpose but to trouble himself this far... something must be up with the said red head.

While he was busy moaning over his fate, the said red head returned with two ice cream cones.

“Here”, he said, passing the mint flavoured sundae to him. Furihata accepted while muttering a small thanks. Akashi had his own chocolate flavoured sundae and although he looked like someone who would enjoy chocolate, it was still cute to see Akashi getting himself such a childlike flavour. Both leaned against the seat while licking some of the soft cream.

“It’s quite nice. Though I didn’t get myself the mint flavour, I can appreciate the homemade flavour”.

Furihata didn’t reply... he had missed the comment since he was too busy licking the trail that had dribbled on his hand. Akashi followed the trail that Furihata made with his tongue... it was almost sensual. With his face growing hot, he looked at the road instead to divert his attention away from any ridiculous thought.

‘What was I thinking?’ he scolded himself, hoping that the image had not caused his pants to tighten and focused on eating his own ice cream instead.

“It’s melting awfully fast”, complained the brunet.

“Soft cream sundae is always a problem to eat”, agreed the red head.

“But you enjoyed it”.

“Of course. It still tastes good eventhough it is melting... as you put it, awfully fast”.

“Argh... Now, you’re just teasing me”, Furihata griped.

Akashi hummed lightly, finished the last bit of his ice cream and turned to look at the brunet. He immediately noticed the ice cream staining Furihata’s cheeks. Finding it adorable that Furihata was a messy eater, at least when it came to ice cream, he ran his thumb on the brunet’s cheek to wipe away the stain.

What he didn’t expect was Furihata to almost drop the cone he was holding. He didn’t move away and feeling a little daring, he traced the thumb to the brunet’s lower lip.

As if everything roared back into motion, including his Audi, he watched the brunet quivered and blossomed as red as a rose.

“A-Akashi-san, wh... what are you doing?” asked the brunet.

“You had ice cream on your cheek. I was just helping to clean your face a bit”.

“D-Did it get onto my lip?”

“Your lips are fine”.

“T-Then why did you do that?”

Akashi shrugged his shoulders. Honestly, he himself couldn’t fathom his own action.

For now... he would put it aside for another time.

*

The door to Midorima’s office was unlocked a few minutes after Furihata’s name was called. Smell of medicine and disinfectant filled the room, a sort of smell that he could never get used to... considering where he had woken up to years ago.

“I presume that Akashi is accompanying you?” asked Midorima, not lifting his gaze from the clipboard.

“He’s waiting outside. Do you want me to call him in?”

“Do you want to?”

“Obviously not”, Furihata replied, crossing his arms in front of his chest.

“I was only taking a precautionary step, Mr. Furihata. Now, if you will cooperate, I will greatly appreciate it”.

“Still... do we have to have these appointments?”

“You have mentioned the name Kiriyama in your previous visit. He... He has a little abnormal background. I’d like to make sure that nothing happens to you”.

“A-Abnormal background? What kind of abnormal background?”

“If we are talking about the same Kiriyama, then he had a very... unethical history in his medical career but then again, it could have been a different Kiriyama”.

“I-I hope whatever unethical thing he is doing doesn’t involve me”.

“I hope so too. Now, shall we proceed with the checkup?”

*

Kise came home to an incredibly horny lover. The moment he stepped inside the three bedroom apartment, he was shoved against the door and pressed into a kiss. Aomine could sometime be a little forceful, not that he minded, but it was a little different today. The bluenette was seeking his attention when he had yet to beg for forgiveness over the small fight they had. His lover must have had his priority switched if he didn’t even care to mutter a simple ‘sorry’.

He was desperately trying to forget something.

He watched how Aomine’s face changed over the course of the night. The frustration that marred his face was troubling Kise; Aomine wanted to talk about it but he couldn’t, meaning that whatever this was... it was within his work realm.

“Aominecchi, Aominecchi”, he called to his lover as he rode him dry. Feeling the need to free Aomine from the trouble he was in, he wrapped his arm around Aomine’s torso and pressed his ear against Aomine’s chest. The heartbeat that was speeding up; his trembling body in Kise’s arm; Kise raised his head, only to be met with tears tracing down his loved one’s skin.

Kise hugged the man closer and with him, his own tears fell. He couldn’t see Aomine hurt because if he was hurt, Kise was hurt too while trying to be understanding that not everything was meant to be shared between them.

“I wish you would tell what it is you’re suffering from, Daiki”, Kise let his voice out.

“I can’t, Ryouta. You know very well, I can’t do that”.

“Not even when you’re this hurt? How can I heal you when I don’t know what it is you’re suffering from?”

“It’s from work. You know I have to deal with this”.

“Not even a small part of it?”

“I’m under oath of secrecy, Ryouta”.

“Did.. did you..” Kise couldn’t even let the rest of the words out. It reminded him the fall out they had back then... when Aomine had just joined the police force.

“No, not this time”.

“Then...why can’t you tell me even a little bit of it?”

“Because... because if you know, you would be hurt too”.

The blond instantly knew that this was more personal than what Aomine was letting out.

“It concerns me too”, he stated.

“It concerns no one”.

“What is it that you’re hiding from me, Daiki?” Kise hissed, thumping lightly against Aomine’s chest.

“It is work related. I can’t tell you about it”.

For a moment, Kise had almost considered to drop the conversation. Hell, he should have just let it go. However, his mouth and body just wouldn’t listen to logic. He pushed away Aomine, pulled out his lover while ignoring the sloppy sound and went into the shower.

When he got out fully dressed, Aomine sat up, obviously irritated with Kise’s action.

“Where are you going?”

“Just going to get some fresh air. Don’t worry, I won’t leave you like last time”.

“Are you angry at me for not telling you everything?”

“It’s your work. Not that I share everything with you either. I get it, okay? I’ll come back when I can think straight”.

“Don’t leave me, Kise”.

“I won’t. I’m older now. It’s just... I need to sort out my head for a bit”.

Kise approached his lover. Aomine’s eyes were pleading him to stay but he needed to be alone for a while. He hoped Aomine would understand.

Bending forward, he pecked Aomine’s forehead.

“I love you”, he said and went out to get his emotions sorted out.


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'll edit the grammar later. XD

Sweat dripped down the pale skin forgotten, with jacket swaying to his quicken pace, Imayoshi arrived at the front door of the headquarter office. Two guards clad in black suits who were smoking at the stairway spared him a brief glance and ignored him once they recognized his face. He often dropped by the building to submit the quarterly report and his face was not one they hadn’t seen.

He passed the security check easily and made haste to the fifth floor where the managerial department was. The elevator made a dinging sound when it opened and after passing five doors down the corridor, he stopped at the only door with a platinum door sign, glaringly spelling ‘Disciplinary Department’.

He didn’t bother to knock and made his presence known by just opening the door. All heads looked up to him and one of them sneezed, looking tired and sickly.

“Sorry? Who are you and why are you here?” asked a muscular man who was sitting next to the window and wearing a displeased expression from the sudden interruption. He had a coffee mug in his grip and a newspaper on the other.

The question was expected since nobody visited the disciplinary department unless they were told to do so or they had committed heinous error. Imayoshi did neither but he was there for the man he considered a friend.

The spectacled man produced a letter in his hand, one that consisted the report about his most recent mission.

“I’d like to speak to the director of the Disciplinary Department”, said Imayoshi.

“I am the director”, the man with the coffee mug said, “My name is Yoshimura Nagasaki. You can call me Yoshi”.

“Sir, I’d like to speak to you for a moment”.

“You haven’t answered my question”, he pointed out.

“I am Imayoshi Shoichi from the Investigation Department. I am here to discuss about the recent event that happened during my mission”.

“Ah, you are talking about the mass murder inside the Yakuza facility, presumably concerning Mr. Nijimura Shuzo”.

“This is about him”.

“I’m afraid there’s nothing much you and I can do regarding this individual. All directors have decided what needs to be done to him”.

“What have they decided?” Imayoshi asked coldly.

“To put him down”.

“Sir, please hear me out. Nijimura isn’t the type to kill unnecessarily. He doesn’t always disobey orders. This time it might just a.... fluke”.

“A fluke? Knowingly exposing a mission is a serious offense. Can you justify his action?”

“Sir, he has contributed greatly to our company. He himself has brought many successes to important missions. Losing him is like losing a valuable talent”.

“We are talking about a talent that lose himself to bloodshed. This company cannot take risk to have him around or walking free. He knows too much and he can be a potential risk to us. My job is to make sure that risk is minimize while preserving this company’s integrity”.

Imayoshi understood where they were coming from; he understood that it was a part of the consequence. Despite knowing this, he still rejected the impending consequence. There shouldn’t be just one consequence but many, depending on how he manipulated the facts surrounding it.

“I was hoping that we can work something out that would benefit the company. Instead, you risk losing all the information we have uncovered so far”, Imayoshi said in resignation.

That grabbed Yoshi’s attention. The man put down his mug and newspaper, certainly invested in what he had just said.

“Do you know something that we don’t?”

“In fact, I do. No...Not I. He does”.

“Explain to me why he is still having values to be kept alive at this point. Failure to do such can cause you a disciplinary action”.

Yoshi waited impatiently for Imayoshi’s answer. The other inhabitants in the room were minding their own business but kept on listening to the conversation. No one in the room had yet to drop down their guard except for the sickly one who were too fogged to even pay any attention.

 “Our mission was to retrieve the data from Kaito mafia in regards to their relation to some of the government officials. We managed to copy over the files but unfortunately, something happened”.

“What is that something?”

“The data can never be transferred in the first place. Whatever inside the USB is encrypted and programmed to corrupt the moment the USB is plugged in on another device”.

“What? Are you saying we never have the data in the first place?”

“In conclusion, the retrieval mission ends up in failure”.

“Say, what does this have anything to do with Nijimura-san?” asked the only female employee in the room. She was getting interested in the way the conversation had taken its turn.

“While transferring the data, Nijimura snooped around to look at various documents and images in the cabinets and PC. While we don’t have the files we wanted, he had seen the files”.

“We can just go into the headquarters again”.

The black haired man clicked his tongue. “Impossible. You won’t be able to infiltrate there again”.

“... Your confidence level is irritating me”.

“Of course I come with another urgent news for you. It’s been two days after the event and last night, a mysterious fire has wiped out the whole building”.

“Fire? The building caught on fire?” The dropping room temperature made Imayoshi cringed.

Still, Imayoshi couldn’t stop himself from grinning. “It was on that newspaper you were reading. On page 23. Unfortunately, no documentation survived it”.

Yoshi left his desk immediately. Just before he headed out to call for an impromptu meeting about what he had just learned with the other directors, he glared at the only external individual in the room and asked, “Will we be able to rely on his memory alone?”

“Oh yes. Nijimura scored perfect marks on memory tests. He is the only one with the record of all 500 questions answered in an hour”.

In fact, Nijimura was the only candidate who was identified with excellent photographic memory. It was a shame he never did ask how he managed to achieve that ability.

“You’re lucky that the _fire_ have given him a chance to live”.

“He’s a lucky man indeed”, Imayoshi nodded in agreement.

He looked back at last night how he had diligently pulled the gasoline tanks and washed the trees with them.

The fire that ignited swept across the roof tiles from a swipe of the matchstick, scorching whatever in their way.

All in the name of ensuring the survival of his colleague and he believed he did the right thing.

“You better be a grateful son of a bitch”, Imayoshi cursed softly on his way to the train station. Now he just needed to wait and see.

\----An unfinished business---

Two days ago, Takao saw Furihata walking to Midorima’s office. It was even more peculiar to find out whom the brunet was with... Akashi of all people. He had had a meeting and thus had to pass up the opportunity to tease the easily flustered man. Takao was by all means resourceful. When he wanted to know something, he would go around asking questions to make sense of what happened. In this hospital, only one person knew the two men personally. With this intention in mind, he and his lover spent their break in Midorima’s office, having takeaways from the convenience store.

“This is unhealthy”, the green head male eyed the lumpy piece of grilled salmon.

“It’s okay once in a while”, replied Takao, tearing the sauce packaging of his Takoyaki sauce.

“How can anyone eat this thing?”

“They’re not bad. Wanna try mine?”

Midorima vigorously shook his head and picked up the salmon piece. “Why aren’t we eating in the cafeteria?” asked the taller male.

“To spend time together”, said Takao cheerily.

“We can spend time together eating in the cafeteria”.

“I don’t like the watchful eyes of the nurses”, Takao whined.

“Point taken”.

It was not a secret that they were dating but that blatant fact earned them different gazes wherever they went and with whomever they were interacting. Takao shrugged; he didn’t have to please everyone. As long as Midorima still loved him, he would still be fine.

They had a small chat about their day and made plan for the evening. Sometimes Takao would tease the other about the little habits he found weird but endearing. Midorima ended up tasting one of the takoyaki piece, commenting how it would’ve tasted nicer when made fresh.

“Nothing beats the old style takoyaki, yeah?” Takao snipped the last piece into half.

“There’s a place I know sells beautifully made takoyaki. Unfortunately, it’s in Himeji. We can go there in winter”.

“Aw... Shin-chan is making plan for us”.

“Shut up, Takao”.

“I heard the state renovated the Himeji Castle. I want to see it. Oh and the temple site. I want to make a prayer for both of us”.

“I’ll see if I can free some time on my schedule”.

“Great. I can’t wait for our holiday plan~”

Takao was just about to broach the topic about Akashi and Furihata when a nurse walked in to remind Midorima of his meeting. The green haired male apologetically looked at Takao since he could no longer spend more time with him until they got off work but he made sure to let Takao know he enjoyed having lunch together through a pat on Takao’s black lock. He grabbed his notebook and pen, leaving after giving another look over his shoulder, amused at how awed Takao was when he slipped in the pat.

“Ah, well... he’s busy... I’ll ask him later”, said the shorter male after some time, helping to clear out the office from the remains of their lunch break.

While turning around, Takao tripped over the patient’s chair, sending him flailing and knocking of a few folders to the floor.

“Aw, now what?!” he whined in agony at the sight of scattered pieces of paper. He picked them one by one and carefully sorted out the papers back into their folders. One of the folders belonged to Furihata and Takao wasn’t one known for keeping away from things he shouldn’t know. He picked it up and started to read through the report.

“Furihata Kouki... birth date... weight... gender... Reason of visit... consultation? He comes only for consultation?”

There was a box stating it wasn’t the first time Furihata paid a visit to the hospital. He took the older documentation and read the content. “Hallucinated and patient had almost committed suicide? Trauma over a tragic loss of family members in a fire...Was a patient to Dr. Kiriyama-”

The folder dropped onto the floor, “It can’t be.... He can’t be that Kiriyama?”

Takao picked up the folder with shaken hands and placed it on top of the pile. He tucked his hands in his white robe’s pockets and went back to his own office room. Instinctively, he turned the lock, ducking under his table to pull out a black box. He swiped his hand on it, knowing what sin it contained.

“I wish I’d never done what I did”, he gritted his teeth, feeling a sob caught in his throat, “So many people died because I didn’t know better”.

He removed the lid and took out the pile of documents lying inside. Each of them had a passport photo attached to them and on each page was autopsies of failed and successful human experimentation. Takao tried to find Furihata’s name among the papers but he couldn’t find anything in the box.

He rushed towards the shelf and removed a few files stacking together, revealing yet another box. The box, unlike the other one, held information about more gruesome experimentation and their victims. He had that box to hide from authority’s intelligence how far they had discovered and he had sworn not to ever look at it. His moral wouldn’t allow any human conversion activity into weapon. He had a complete documentation of every subject despite not involved in most of them. One of the reason why he was still interrogated about Kiriyama every now and then was because of these information.

“Please don’t be in here. Please don’t be in here”, he hoped for it not to be true.

He was almost at the end of the second box when he took out a document with the name he was searching for. He leafed through the end of the document, scanning every lines in an attempt to comprehend it.

“A minor amount of drug 627A was introduced in the subject’s system. Stabilizing the drug with substance RT100. Subject is showing signs of sleep walking for a few nights.  Showing streaks of violent behavior during consultation. Creating hypnotic environment to instill excessive violence and to block memories of attacks”.

The black haired man turned over the page. “Induced subject’s stress level. Subject went through a violent phase. No physical changes but _it_ took down two of our well-trained guards. See attached photos. Blocked memory after the consultation.”

Takao had to hold down his bile when he saw the picture. The bodies were dismembered and behind them, a younger version of Furihata watched the camera with the eyes of someone who was ready to kill. For a moment, Takao only feel fear.

He read through the document until he reached the end. On every page, the number of killings seemed to increase and the trigger button was always induced stress level. When he saw Midorima’s record of their consultation, he realized it that Furihata's depressed state was slowly building up... which could lead to many other scenarios.

What if Midorima unknowingly unlocked this violent existence in the meek man?

He could lose a lover.

“I have to do something”, he bit his fingernails and dialed the hospital’s director’s number. “Hello, dad? Can you arrange a transfer on Furihata Kouki’s case to me? It’s urgent”.

\--- An unfinished business---

“Well?”

“Well, what?” Furihata eyed Haizaki with an unimpressed look. The silverette, not amused by the obvious attempt at avoiding the topic that had been hanging around ever since Furihata’s outing with Akashi, tugged Furihata’s cheek until the other had to beg him to stop.

“That’s painful!” the brunette punched the other lightly.

“Come on... tell me about what happened that day”.

Haizaki wouldn’t let it down until he got his answer. He made it clear by just waiting for Furihata’s answer (the other wasn’t the type to stick around too long if he was uninterested).

“Which part do you want to know?”

“You know the drill”.

“Huh?” ‘What drill?’ Furihata asked in his head.

“You want me to ask questions? Here’s the deal”, Haizaki lifted a finger, “if I start to ask, you must answer every single one of my question”.

“Eh, what do I get in return?” Furihata asked back. Haizaki gave it a thought and after a lot of pondering, he replied, “you can ask me a question if you answered all of mine”.

“Just one?” asked Furihata incredulously.

“Just one so make it count”.

“Alright...” said Furihata in defeat.

“Tell me what the two of you did on your outing”.

“He picked me up, we stopped for ice cream, we went to my appointment, and then he brought me to dinner after helping him shopping for his nephew’s birthday present”.

“Ahah... so what’s with the new suit you wore when you return home?”

“That is.... I may have borrowed it from Akashi...” the thought brought redness to colour Furihata’s cheek Haizaki didn’t miss it and probed further.

“What happened when you were borrowing the suit?”

“Can I skip that question?”

“Something happened? I’m interested to know now but well, you can skip it but you may not ask me about anything.”

“Unfair... fine I’ll tell you...”

_It was after they were out of the hospital compound when Akashi made a statement, “I’d need to lend you my tailcoat”. Furihata who was opening the chip bag in his hand stopped dead in his track._

_“Eh? Why do I need to change?”_

_“I have made a reservation at the Skytree dining for the both of us”._

_“S-Skytree?”_

_“It’s a fine dining establishment but before that, we’re taking a detour to the central plaza. Help me choose a fitting present for a birthday boy”._

_“Wh-Why are we going to the fine dining?”_

_“... I’d rather keep the intention to myself for now but believe me, it is nothing bad”._

_They spent about an hour in the plaza looking for a suitable gift. The two ended up buying a new skateboard set since Tooru was a fan of skateboarding. Sincethey were both novice, Akashi relied solely on the salesman comments while Furihata relied heavily on google to clarify certain things and to recommend the best model._

_Once they left the plaza, they went back to Akashi’s apartment. There, the red head showed him a suit collection to select from. They weren’t far from size and height so most of the suit were great fit on Furihata too. Since they were in a hurry, they decided to just change in the same room while facing the opposite walls._

_Furihata was putting on the trousers when he suddenly lose balance and started jumping around the room and gracelessly knocked Akashi’s down. They were so close... their nose were already touching but the close proximity got him mesmerized by Akashi’s red eyes._

_He couldn’t break their eye contact; he felt a strange flutter in his stomach amplifying when the red head pecked on his cheek._

_“Don’t run away”, Akashi whispered._

_“I... I don’t think this is... no, this is not right”._

_“You felt it... whatever this is between us. I’ve been considering this for a long time and I want to find out what makes you special”._

_“Akashi-san, you’re just confused”, Furihata sat up._

_Akashi mirrored his movement but caught his wrist in the process. “We’re both confused. I’m not the only one feeling strange”, the red head pointed out at Furihata who was blocking his face from view with his free hand._

_“You’re right...but we don’t have to submit to it. This might be just a phase”._

_Akashi moved closer and peeled away the blocking hand. “It might not be just that. What if we let it happen?”_

_He coaxed the brunet with a light peck on his lips._

_“I... I don’t know”._

_“How about we find out about it right here?”_

“Wait... you kissed him?” Haizaki gawked.

“It turned into a full make out session. We were just experimenting. No big deal, okay? Maybe he finally realized what a mistake it was!”

“Do you think it was a mistake?”

“I am confused. I still like girls but ... it had felt so right!”

Haizaki grinned, mostly because he Furihata had yet to reject it. “I guess... if he felt the same way, you’d be dating soon”.

“Noooooooo”, the brunet screeched. He was still in denial about that day. The situation was deemed as complicated in Furihata’s point of view.

“Okay... as much as I enjoyed the chat, I did promise you a question. If you have something to ask me, ask away”.

He cringed at the glint in Furihata’s eyes. He feared for the worse.

“Say... why do you wear long sleeves? Is there something you were hiding?’

Yeah... Haizaki definitely feared the worse and his gut feeling was right on once again.


End file.
